Sony Boss Confirms It’s Officially the End of an Era for ‘Spider-Man’

By cpstestersofficial@gmail.com · August 4, 2026 · 3 min read

As has often been the case, Spider-Man is currently on top of the entertainment world after the release of Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures’ newest movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Directed by Wonder Man’s Destin Daniel Cretton, Tom Holland returns to the MCU as Peter Parker in a world unaware of his existence, fighting some of his most iconic villains from the comics and new threats unlike anything he has ever seen. On the back of excellent reviews from critics and fans, the film is already on its way to being the biggest movie of the year and one of the most successful hits ever.

Even with that success, Sony is still reeling from its less successful endeavors with other Marvel projects, namely the Spider-Man spin-off projects in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. While the three Venom movies were all fairly big hits financially, none of the six movies in this franchise earned the best reviews, and some of them were ridiculed as some of the worst movies in the history of superhero films. Considering that level of disappointment, it is no surprise that the future looks bleak for this particular saga.

Speaking with Variety, Sony Pictures Chairman Tom Rothman discussed the future of the company’s Spider-Man spin-off movies after Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s debut in theaters. Asked whether there are plans to keep developing movies for Marvel characters, he admitted that he does not know and that there are currently “none in active development:”

“Right now, we don’t know. We never looked at it as the ‘Sony-Marvel Universe. We looked at if there were worthwhile movies to make with other characters. At the moment, there are none in active development.”

He also commented on the status of the franchise as a whole, noting that the “audience wasn’t satisfied enough” with movies like Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web. While he is not sure they received a “fair assessment, he made it clear that the “audience is the boss” in these situations, and they simply “didn’t respond” to what Sony put forth with those movies.

Simply put, Sony’s non-Spider-Man Marvel movies have not yielded the best results either critically or financially. None of the six movies has an average Tomatometer score above 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the lowest being 2024’s Madame Web at an awful 10%. These movies only combined to gross $2.16 billion, including three movies that did not even gross more than $170 million worldwide in their entire theatrical runs.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already grossed more than $1 billion in its first week in theaters, becoming the second-fastest movie ever to hit that plateau outside of Avengers: Endgame. Additionally, Sony has its sights set on a massive return to the Spider-Verse with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse in Jun. 2027, after the first two movies combined to gross over $1 billion globally. While the spin-off’s era seems to be over, Spider-Man as a whole shows no signs of going anywhere anytime soon.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters worldwide.