Yes, they may get Spider-Man back and to top it off, it would be for FREE.
So as we all know, Disney lost Spider-Man again as they walked into the negotiations with Sony asking to go from 5% to a whopping 30% profit return from all Spider-Man AND related movies (Venom, say). Of course Sony balked at the idea and we the fans, or at least this fan, was furious that Marvel would try to get THAT damn greedy.
Well now ... from what I am hearing around the LCS water cooler is the following -
Amazon, knowing that companies are making a mad rush at streaming services and knowing that if they don't do something to acquire movie studios (in order to obtain/retain rights to programs/movies that they stream) they will be hurting in the long run, well, they may just be buying Sony Pictures. The rumor is that Jeff Bezos wants Sony.
Disney (Disney, Marvel, etc), CBS, and others are locking in their own properties for their streaming services and if that trend continues (it will) it will hurt Amazon. Sure they could do a Netflix and produce their own stuff (they do now in-fact), but they don't want to rely solely on that. No no.
But here is where Marvel was smart. They apparently knew of the possibility/rumor that Amazon was looking to buy Sony, and they also know that there is a clause in the contract with Sony that if Sony was to be bought out, obtained or had a merger, Spider-Man would revert back to Marvel!!!!!
So yeah, that explains why they ran in with an outrageous offer. Heck, knowing that if Sony would say yes, they would get a huge profit boost, but if they said no, there was a chance they would walk away with Peter anyway!!!
