Corporate Greed has struck again. In a contractual dispute, Sony Entertainment has taken rights to the Spider-Man franchise away from Disney. Looks like Spider-Man movies just became less spectacular.

There have been a lot of misconceptions about what actually happened in the business meeting between the two sides. The previous financial plan in place for the series was for Sony to pay the budget for making each solo movie, and to keep 90% of all profits. Disney would keep the other 10% of the profits in exchange for allowing Sony to utilize characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in these movies.

The dispute took place over money, as always with corporations. Disney was seeking to change the plan to where both sides would pay for half of the production, and both would receive half of the profit. This may seem fair at face value, but you must take into mind Sony’s perspective. “Spider-Man: Far From Home” recently eclipsed “Skyfall” to become Sony’s highest-grossing movie of all time. Why would they accept a deal that would cause them to lose 40% of the profit to their most profitable franchise?

But let’s steer off of the business aspect of the conflict and move towards the movies themselves. Spider-Man has been coveted by fans of the MCU ever since he appeared in Captain America: Civil War. In particular, the most recent movie,”Far From Home” received the most praise, with a 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Far from Home immediately became my favorite movie, like…ever”, student Maliik Cooper says. So one can imagine how other students like Maliik would react when Sony announced that Spider-Man will no longer be a part of the MCU. 

“I was very, very upset because now we’re not going to see Spider-Man as Iron Man 2.0,” student Thomas Dandridge also expressed.

Thomas is referencing the events that occurred in “Far from Home”. In a spoiler-free description, all you need to understand is that in the film, you see Spider-Man adjust into a leadership role for the MCU altogether. The stage was set for the web-slinger to drive Marvel through Phase 4 of their movies, but this dispute has thrown their plans into disarray.

Fans and students are concentrating on Spidey leaving Marvel movies altogether, but they should also consider the Sony side. The recent adaptations of Spider-Man by Sony have been received well by the public. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was widely and critically acclaimed, with Venom receiving slightly less favorable reviews. With Spider-Man out of the MCU, Sony is eager to introduce him to the new cinematic universe they have devised. 

So are students excited for the direction Sony will take with the character? Somewhat.

“It is still Spider-Man… but I think the MCU version had a better thing going for it,” Cooper said.

Many students believe that the change in quality for the Sony version will not be too drastic. Despite not having additional MCU characters in the films, Tom Holland is always sure to attract eyes. Countless people at our school have followed him on social media and have contributed to his 31.5 million Instagram followers. Fellow student Anne Kiser claims that he is the sole reason why she watched the movies. 

As far as who’s to blame for this whole debacle, students have weighed in on which side they believe is most at fault. Maliik claims, “Sony just wants a bigger share of the profit,” while Thomas contrasts, “…they’re [Disney] already making so much.” His point being that they shouldn’t feel any pressure to acquire 50% of the profit. 

One thing’s for certain, a franchise that was on track for a historic run has been knocked off course by the influence of money. Where the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man goes from here remains to be seen, but his impact on fans of the franchise and high school students, in particular, remains stable.