Monday evening, Marvel and Sony Pictures announced a huge partnership that will allow Spider-Man to appear in upcoming Marvel movies. The deal included a new Spider-Man movie that will hit theaters July 28, 2017.
Now that Spider-Man has been added to the lineup, Disney's 2017 has the possibility of becoming one the studio's biggest years - if not the best - at the box office.
That's saying something because this year alone is expected to be a huge year for Disney. The studio will release two of this year's most-anticipated films: "The Avengers" sequel, "The Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "Star Wars: Episode VII."
The first "Avengers" film grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide. "Star Wars" on its own has the potential of becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. Analysts have predicted the sequel could hit $2 billion at theaters worldwide. The Guardian made a case for "Episode VII" being the first $3 billion film. (For reference, 2009's "Avatar" made $2.7 billion worldwide.)
So how is 2017 shaping up?
The addition of Spider-Man will give Walt Disney Studios a total of three Marvel movies in theaters that year. Generally, the Mouse House puts out two per year.
Disney, which owns Lucasfilm, Pixar, and Marvel studios under its umbrella of movie-making vehicles will also put out "Star Wars: Episode VIII" and a long-awaited "Toy Story" sequel.
A fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film with Johnny Depp is also expected.
Here's a look at Disney's big movies for 2017 so far:
Release date | Movie | Disney property |
May 5, 2017 | "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" | Marvel |
June 16, 2017 | "Toy Story 4" | Pixar |
July 7, 2017 | "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" | Disney |
July 28, 2015 | untitled Spider-Man movie | Marvel / Sony Pictures |
Nov. 3, 2015 | "Thor: Ragnarok" | Marvel |
Dec. 2017 | "Star Wars: Episode VIII" | Lucasfilm |
There's also another untitled Pixar movie that may or may not be released in Nov.
The Street's Chris Katje predicts three of those, "Toy Story 4," "Spider-Man," and "Star Wars," will be at least $1 billion movies.
"Toy Story 3" grossed over $1 billion at theaters in 2010. Another "Pirates" film has a good chance of cracking $1 billion also. The fourth film made $963.4 million.
The "Spider-Man" estimate may be a bit high considering the last two films failed to crack $800 million a piece at the box office. (The highest-grossing "Spider-Man" movie is 2007's critically-panned "Spider-Man 3" with $890 million.)
After a total of five Spider-Man movies between 2002 and 2014, it's not certain how receptive people will be for a third Spider-Man reboot in such a small time frame.
However, fans are pretty excited for Spidey's triumphant return to Marvel. After the announcement was made, Marvel became a trending topic on Twitter with the hashtag #WelcomeHomeSpiderman becoming a favorite on the social media site.
You're safe now, Spidey. We'll never let you go again. #Marvel #WelcomeHomeSpiderMan pic.twitter.com/uChRyG9kca
- Pat Aldo (@paldo624) February 10, 2015
Wow. I honestly didn't think #SpiderMan would join the #Marvel universe any time soon. Cool! pic.twitter.com/2POJ2GZhzd
- James Garcia (@thereeljames) February 10, 2015