Spider-Man’s in THE AVENGERS Movie… Yet Again

This rumor never dies!!! We totally get it. Marvel Studios, as successful as they may be, wants nothing more than Spider-Man in their cinematic universe. Meanwhile, Sony’s Spidey flicks continue to tumble down the box office ranks, leaving this once powerful franchise in desperate need of some cross promotion. So Spider-Man should totally show up in The Avengers, right? Right? RIGHT!?!?!?!?!?!

Well… no. Not exactly. The Wall Crawler’s film rights probably float at $1 billion, which is no small sum, even for Marvel Studios (and Disney, their owner). Hell, Mickey Mouse and crew bought all of Marvel for $4 billion. That’s over 7,000 characters. So Kevin Feige and his fellow Marvelites would probably say “Nay!” to a flat out purchase. Even more, the most recent Spider-Man movies wildly underperformed. Even with the 3D advantage, Marc Webb’s 2 new flicks have grossed less than every Sam Raimi Spidey movie. Pretty embarrassing, especially when you remember Spider-Man is the second most popular superhero behind Batman.

What would Marvel Studios win from this situation? I’m not quite sure. You’d think any Marvel franchise would benefit from a dash of Spidey, right? But does Marvel Studios so desperately need to invite the Wall Crawler to their films? Guardians of the Galaxy, as trite as it is to say, cemented the Marvel Studios brand as a blockbuster engine. They can turn Iron Man into a $2 billion + franchise. They’ll probably do the same for Thor and Captain America when their series are finished. So why the hell is Spider-Man so important?

He’s not. Let the hero’s cinematic exploits die at Sony. Sam Raimi already created the quintessential iteration of that city swinging hero. We don’t really need too much more.