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 in film
However, on February 9, 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios announced that Spider-Man would appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with the character appearing in an MCU film and Sony releasing a "Spider-Man" film co-produced by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal. Sony Pictures will continue to own, finance, distribute, and exercise final creative control over the "Spider-Man" films. The next month, Marvel Entertainment CCO Joe Quesada indicated that the Peter Parker version of the character would be used, which Feige confirmed in April. Feige also stated that Marvel had been working to add Spider-Man to the MCU since at least October 2014. The following June, Feige clarified that the initial Sony deal does not allow the character to appear in any of the MCU television series, as it was "very specific... with a certain amount of back and forth allowed." In November 2016, Holland revealed that he was signed for "three Spider-Man movies and three solo movies". In June 2017, Holland, Feige and Watts confirmed that a child wearing an Iron Man mask whom Stark saves from a drone in "Iron Man 2" (portrayed by Max Favreau) was a young Peter Parker, retroactively making it the introduction of the character to the MCU.