Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures are proving that a decade-long partnership between two rival studios doesn’t have to end in a messy way.
“I think it’s basically unheard of,” Pascal Pictures producer Amy Pascal told Collider’s Steven Weintraub ahead of SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY’s July 31 release. “But it was the right thing to do for Peter Parker, and that’s why it happened, and that’s why it works still.”
Sony owns Spider-Man’s theatrical rights and controls distribution and international licensing, while Walt Disney’s Marvel Studios co-produces through the arrangement Pascal and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige struck a decade ago. The deal traces back to 2015, when the two studios agreed to fold Peter Parker into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, an unusual concession for competitors who typically guard their characters.
The arrangement wasn’t always smooth. Sony and Disney briefly split in 2019 over how to divide box office profits, pulling Spider-Man out of the MCU for several tense months before the studios negotiated a new deal and brought him back.
“It’s the same team,” Feige told Collider. “We’re just very thankful that we’ve been able to do it and that it’s been 10 years.”
Related: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Is Already Making History
Pascal said she and Feige have actually been making Spider-Man movies together for 27 years, dating back before the MCU crossover. She calls herself and Feige “the proud parents of those three [stars Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon], because we met them when they were children at this point,” referring to when the trio was cast as teenagers for 2017’s HOMECOMING.
BRAND NEW DAY is the fourth Holland-led Spider-Man movie and picks up four years after the sacrifice Peter Parker made at the end of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, when he erased himself from the memory of everyone he loves.
“A terrific, heartfelt action adventure movie” is how Movieguide®’s review describes BRAND NEW DAY, praising strong Christian and moral values that turn the hero into “an admirable Christ figure.” The review also flags “gratuitous, offensive strong profanities and mid-level obscenities” parents may want to weigh before a family outing.
The marketing campaign has already broken records on its own. The trailer pulled in 718.6 million views in its first 24 hours, according to Variety, making it the most-watched trailer for anything ever, edging out even the GRAND THEFT AUTO VI game trailer, as Movieguide® reported in March.
Box office trackers expect BRAND NEW DAY to post one of 2026’s biggest openings, with domestic estimates ranging from $180 million to $300 million and a global opening weekend that could approach $465 million, according to Deadline and Boxoffice Pro.
Feige and Pascal insist the partnership has lasted because it was never really about the numbers. Pascal said she hopes “Tom’s going to be our Spider-Man forever,” even as she and Feige build every movie to stand on its own in case Holland eventually walks away from the role.
Ten years in, Marvel and Sony’s arrangement offers a rare example of two competitors choosing collaboration over control, and it has kept a hero on screen who, as Movieguide®’s reviewers noted, still points somewhere beyond himself.
Read Next: Tom Holland Calls SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY ‘Most Creatively Fulfilling’ Project
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