A new rumor details that Disney wants to buy Spider-Man outright from Sony for more than $4 billion.
The rumor comes from Mikey Sutton and his Geekosity Facebook group.
Sutton details:
“While rumors have circulated before the Sony-Disney dispute of such a purchase, it was mere speculation, especially the erroneous high number that was quoted. What I’m hearing is that Disney is looking to offer in the range of $4 to $5 billion for Spider-Man.”
Sutton does note that he’s only getting Disney’s side of the story and it’s unclear what Sony thinks about selling Spider-Man. However, he believes Sony would be willing to sell for the right price.
“In fact, I’m only getting one side of the story here: Disney’s. I don’t know how Sony feels about this. But my Spidey sense is tingling as Sony is willing to sell the Masters of the Universe film rights to Netflix. It’s all about finding the magic number. As they say, everything has a price.”
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A recent report in The Hollywood Reporter notes that Sony’s studio chairman Tom Rothman “is exploring the prospect of getting risk-free cash for the pricey [Masters of the Universe] by making it for Netflix instead.” THR’s Kim Masters adds, “A studio source says talks are preliminary, but such a deal would make Sony the next studio after Paramount to start making movies belonging exclusively or almost exclusively to the streamer.”
Sony did recently sell off the Valiant Entertainment comic adaptation of Harbinger to Paramount, where producer Neal Moritz has a first-look deal. So the idea of selling Spider-Man isn’t out of the ballpark.
Sutton does note that Disney is not satisfied with the reported 25% stake in the Spider-Man IP and they want to own the property outright.
“It’s still not enough. Yes, Disney will accept this and continue to renegotiate with Sony for future Spider-Man movies and appearances if that’s all they can get. But their preference is for them to own him completely, and they will go for it.”
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TVO on the Lords of the Long Box elaborated that it’s not just Spider-Man, but all 900 characters that Sony currently owns.
What do you make of this new rumor? Do you want to see Disney purchase Spider-Man outright?