Spider-Man in film

Actors who have played Spider-Man in modern film (from left to right): Tobey Maguire in the Sam Raimi films, Andrew Garfield in the Marc Webb films, and Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Spider-Man has appeared in film since the 1977 made-for-television movie broadcast on CBS. The motion picture rights to Spider-Man belonged to Marvel Entertainment until 1999, when Sony Pictures bought them for $7 million^[1] and produced Spider-Man's first theatrical film. He has been Marvel's most successful character in the American film industry ever since.

After selling the Spider-Man motion picture rights to Sony, Marvel eventually founded its own film studio, Marvel Studios, developing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) shared universe based only on the characters they still held the rights to. This would change in 2016, when Sony and the Walt Disney Company^[2] entered an agreement to introduce Spider-Man to the MCU. Despite some disagreements pertaining to finances and merchandising between the two parties, the agreement proved to be a successful endeavor for both companies. The crossover films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame included Spider-Man and crossed the two-billion-dollar mark at the worldwide box office for the first time. Meanwhile, Sony, in association with Marvel,^[3] launched its own shared universe known as Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), with Sony entering a three-billion-dollar streaming agreement with Netflix and Disney.^[4]