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 (Japanese TV series)
, also referred to as Japanese Spider-Man, is a Japanese live-action tokusatsu television series produced by Toei Company, loosely based on Marvel Comics' Spider-Man character. The series lasted 41 episodes, which aired on Wednesday 19:30 JST time slot of Tokyo Channel 12 (TV Tokyo) from May 17, 1978, to March 14, 1979. A theatrical episode was shown in the Toei Manga Matsuri film festival on July 22, 1978. From March 5 to December 24, 2009, Marvel uploaded English subtitled versions of all 41 episodes on their website.