Marvel Studios
The next film licensed from Marvel Studios was "Spider-Man" by Columbia Pictures, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. The film was released on May 3, 2002, grossing $403,706,375 in the United States and Canada and $821,708,551 worldwide. The early success of "Spider-Man" led the film's studio to issue a seven-figure advance for a sequel. Arad spoke of the deal, "Movies make sequels. Therefore, it's a big economic luxury to know that a movie's going to get a second and third. This is a business of precedence." According to a Lehman Brothers analysis, the Studios made only $62 million for the first 2 Spider-Man movies. Marvel was making more from half the consumer product licensing fees while making relatively little from the movie, but was enough for Marvel to regain its financial footings. In October 2002, Marvel Studios announced deals for Sub-Mariner and Prime with Universal Studios.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
During this time, Marvel made "The Amazing Spider-Man" the company's sole Spider-Man title, upping its frequency of publication to three issues monthly and cancelling the other then-current Spider-Man titles "The Sensational Spider-Man" and "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", and inaugurated the series with a sequence of "back to basics" story arcs. This marks the first time since December 1976 (when "Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man" #1 was published) that only one regularly published title featured Spider-Man in its title.