why did marvel sell spider-man?

i don't understand why marvel studios would sell spider-man, does anyone know why?

At the time, they either lacked the resources, know-how, or confidence to take a shot at doing it themselves. Same deal with X-Men, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, and so on. So they sold them off to studios they thought DID have those things. Since, Marvel has founded it's own studio, so it's making it's own films now. This is problematic since those old studios still have the rights to these characters/licenses. Which is a bummer.

Fortunately, each studio has to make a movie using the license every once in a while in order to keep it, otherwise they revert back to Marvel. Hence why Daredevil and now Ghost Rider is back at homebase.

Which is also why we need to boycott the X-men, Fantastic Four and Spider-man movies, who in my oppinion have all been doing lackluster jobs with the characters latley.

I could agree with you with the FF and X-Men film but Wolverine, Mags, Professor X, Kurt, Mystic are the exceptions from that franchise. Also I have no complaints for the current SpiderMan franchise...it's a upgrade to the cast from the predecessor.

@acer51: i totally agree about FF and X-men but spidey has been doing pretty well lately.

@mitrageist: exactly, they were flat broke.

@acer51:

really? I thought X Men 1 and 2 and First Class were excellent and I haven't seen a bad Spiderman movie yet, although 3 comes close! However I would like to see Spiderman back at Marvel Studios so he could fit in with the Avengers. Also, because Marvel Studios appears to be on a roll.

Shortsightedness I guess. Then again NO ONE could predict that the MCU would actually be a thing. In my recollection I was like: "Thor? Iron Man? Captain America? I hardly read the comics, why would I want to see them on the big screen?" Then I saw the awesomeness that was Iron Man (I kinda liked the Ang Lee Hulk, but I think I just like the Hulk). Basically Marvel is left with the scraps after they sold the hottest properties AND THEY FREAKING ROCKED IT. I am so sad that they have to tiptoe around these other studios. I would love to see what they could do with no boundaries. Meanwhile at DC...

They were in danger of going bankrupt, so they sold off properties that people would take.

The only reason that they retained the rights to Avengers was because...nobody wanted any of them.

IIRC, Sony only got one, but got the top one, and got a more solid hold on him than Fox got for their block of characters. (DD, Ghost Rider, Blade, and Punisher are all back to being Marvel's entirely.)

Marvel tried to make some offers for the FF (probably about the time they were figuring on an alien invasion for Avengers, and were probably considering 'Super Skrull' as a villain.) Trading time for another Daredevil. Fox wouldn't go for it.

That said, Sony seems to be the most open about possibly reconnecting Spider-Man with the others... but maybe not. They refused to let Marvel use 'Empire State' University in the Hulk movie, but seemed to be more open about Oscorp building in Avengers. (Now that they know tieing Spider-Man to Marvel Studios movies isn't going to be a noose for them.)

I'm assuming Marvel sold off these rights some years ago. Yes how ironic that the ones that got left produced such a brilliant film. Was it lucky, or did some genius see the potential in Robert Downey Jr playing Iron Man long before anyone else?

..as for DC, don't get me started! Cut me down the middle and I am half Marvel, half DC, one of those rare people who isn't mainly in one camp or the other. I am distraught at what a mess they have made of getting characters other than Batman to the big screen!!

@amazingspiderman15: They sold their three best products to avoid bankrupcy.Spider-Man,X-Men and Fantastic Four.

,,it is funny however that the one they stuck with (Avengers characters), has produced the highest grossing Marvel character films of all!!

It's how you treat and do stuff in general.They made it work.Hell,it looks like they will make GoTG work...

If Marvel had Spider-Man or the X-Men they would have made the same or more money,because they would be the perfect version.