Spider-Man: No Way Home Could Become Sony’s Most Profitable Film Ever

MovieWeb

By Abhishek Sharma

Published Dec 28, 2021

The film may register a $600M+ in net profits for the studio, as it continues to dominate box office with its $1B and counting worldwide gross.

Looks like Sony is getting substantially rewarded for its epic fan service through the iconically fulfilled Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film, which recently became the first pandemic-era film to gross over a billion U.S. dollars at the global box office, is eyeing over $600 million in net profits. If that figure is reached, Spider-Man: No Way Home will become the most profitable ever film for Sony Pictures Releasing. The Spider-Man threequel set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossed over with the past Spider-Man and brought past Spidey villains into the MCU along with detailed inclusion of the multiverse concept, expanding the franchise to new branched realities. Prior to the film’s release, the film had a lot of fan theories that came in along with a number of potential plot points (or leaks), hinting at some expected moments that fans have always wondered about. These expectations were the primary reason No Way Home attracted record-breaking ticket pre-sales, resulting in a second-best $121M opening.

Now, even before entering its third week, the film has grossed over $1B and is about to top its predecessor, Spider-Man: Far From Home, which currently stands as the highest-grossing Spider-Man film of all time. Also, Far From Home had become the first film to gross over a billion dollars in any Spider-Man franchise in 2019, surpassing Sony’s earlier highest-grosser Skyfall.

According to Deadline’s box-office accounting for No Way Home production and marketing, the film, after removing marketing costs, can eventually web up to $610M record profits for the studio. Per Deadline’s box-office editor:

After [the] exhibition's cut of the box office, global rentals will send $825M back to Sony. Theatrical release costs are factored at $200M for production, and $248M in global [print and advertising]...These box office gross levels should trigger an additional combined global home and TV net monies (less distribution costs) of $405M. Broken out that's $135M from a very robust domestic home market including streaming, PVOD and DVD...$80M from foreign home entertainment, $25M from U.S. free TV, $35M from domestic Pay TV, and $130M from International TV.

Total revenues home plus global theatrical rentals equals $1.23 billion. Subtract all worldwide P&A, production cost, participations and residuals of $620M combined and we settle at a $610M profit.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has already become the biggest film of the year financially, and has turned into the most significant film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Being the franchise's first film to officially cross over with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, it has further expanded the opportunities for various characters and story arcs from Marvel Comics to make way into the MCU’s shared continuity. Spider-Man: No Way Home’s profits are also accounted for by different cost-calculations, as the film was a part of the re-negotiated deal between Sony and Marvel established after the two studios clashed over the character’s rights back in 2019 after Far From Home's release.

With the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, both Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige have agreed to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man films, that shall see Tom Holland reprising his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Furthermore, the film’s two most-appreciated cameos of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and past Spider-Man actors, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield has further hyped up the character’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.