This just in, web-heads; Spider-Man is swinging back into theaters this spring!
Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures has announced that starting on April 15th, they will re-release each of the nine live-action Spider-Man movies in select theaters from April to May. Each week, a different film in the ever-expanding Spider-Man mythos will be back on the big screen. Scheduled to kick off on April 15th, the event will start with Sam Raimi’s iconic “Spider-Man” from 2001 and will end with the most recent release, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” on June 3rd.
But the question on most fans’ minds is this: is this truly a renaissance for all things Spidey, or just a conveniently timed desperation tactic to rake in more money for the production company?
This upcoming string of re-releases follows Sony’s recent decision to pull the plug on “Madam Web’s” disastrous theatrical run. As such, it has been speculated that the anniversary is merely a convenient and desperate Hail Mary to earn back Sony’s lost box-office revenue.
The upcoming Spider-Mondays event wouldn’t be the first time that Sony has re-released its movies to recuperate from a disastrous box-office run. At least this time, Sony is using the more beloved films in its catalog rather than re-releasing lackluster schlock.
The previous film in Sony’s interconnected Marvel live-action universe of films, “Morbius,” was met with weak financial success upon release. Rather than brushing it under the rug and trying to make up for their losses through some other avenue, Sony wound up re-releasing the film in June 2022 in an attempt to capitalize on its presence in the meme community.
Desperate to make back the money they had sunk into casting and production, the studio wound up mistaking the “praise” the movie received among internet meme-makers and editors was pure unadulterated sarcasm. Because no, Sony, just because fans call it ‘one of the movies of all time’ does not mean the deliberately missing attribution is anything good.
Fitting for a movie that was released on April Fools’ Day, “Morbius” out-bombed itself by a wide margin.
The second coming and face-planting of “Morbius” wasn’t the only time they’d gone and tried re-releasing their movies within the last few years. Hot off the heels of their domineering opening week with the record-breaking “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” both Sony and Marvel gave the green light to do another run of the movies as a sort of victory lap for themselves. Due to it only being released months after it debuted, it raked in much less money than its premiere did.
Sony will be facing competition in theaters, though. Disney will be reaping the benefits twofold with the upcoming 25th anniversary of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,” set to be re-released in theaters. It is likely to be a better success than the prequel trilogy, given the recent turnabout in public perception in recent years.
Regardless of studio executives’ intent, fans of Marvel’s most iconic creation are rearing to eat well this year. For over twenty years, fans, young and old alike, have watched in awe as The Amazing Spider-Man swung into action on the big screen, and Spider-Mondays are primed and ready to capture this excitement yet again.
