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.
Superhero film
At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel confirmed that an "Ant-Man" film was in development, as well as a film based on 2008 comic series "Guardians of the Galaxy", which was released in August 2014. "Iron Man 3" was released in May 2013, "" was released in November 2013, and "" was released in April 2014. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2", the sequel to the 2012 reboot was also released in May 2014, which became the lowest grossing and poorest critically rated film in the "Spider-Man" film series. In 2013, a sequel to the 2009 film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", titled "The Wolverine" was released. In 2014, "" was released to critical acclaim and financial success; the film became the highest-grossing film in the "X-Men" series, and effectively rebooted the franchise.