It's no secret that theDisney-ownedMarvel Studiosand theWarner Bros-ownedDC Comicshave essentially been at war these past few years as they've both managed to transform themselves into billion-dollar film juggernauts. Between 2015 and 2020,Marvelhas eleven films set to arrive, not including any Sony-produced Spider-ManfilmsorFox-produced X-Menfilms, whileDC has ten films in the works, not including potential solo films forSupermanorBatman.

A majority of the recent focus has been placed on their film futures, but The Hollywood Reporter has provided details about a key financial underpin of the war: licensing revenue. Even though it may not sound flashy, licensing revenue is just as important, if not more important, than their film revenue. However, just like the current status of their film competition, this is another aspect where Marvel reigns supreme, thanks mostly to their most popular hero (and oddly enough one of the film properties they don't own), everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

Last year, Marvel sold approximately $1.3B worth of Spider-Man products, which is approximately four times the $325M they made from the Avengers. Meanwhile, their competition over at DC has struggled to keep up. Unsurprisingly, their most popular property was Batman, who brought in a respectable $494M, while their second most popular hero, Superman, brought it about $277M.

Check out the graphs below to get a better grasp of Spider-Man's worldwide popularity as well as Marvel's current domination over DC in licensing:

I was just going to post this! This is awesome! Spidey had more sales than the Avengers, Batman, and Superman combined.

Spidey sale-stomped everyone! Amazing!

It's not something surprising ,guys,quit the "Wow" stuff.........it's been like this since 1964.

Batman is still cooler.

*

@_darkwing_: Maybe................................................................ (that is also bait)

And yet Sony can't seem to capitalize on his popularity with good movies.

Sony has gold,and keeps it in a napkin,on a rotten wooden table......

Marvel would have been absolutely insane with Spider-Man,on board.

I'm not surprised. I've seen far more Spider-Man merchandise than for any other hero.

Spider-Man > Batman and Superman. It's basically a fact now.

lol how's this even possible? Every type of Spider-Man media is terrible right now. (Still pretty awesome to hear though)

I see a lot more Spider-Man products than Batman toys in most of the stores I go to. Especially Target...Target loves its Spider-Man stuff.

I concur. Batman is the number one comic from DC.

Wow Spidey has a huge international following. Over 2/3 of his sales are international

Yeah I always see Spiderman toys in toy store not much from the other super heroes so it is logical. Also Ultimate Spider man gets watched by a lot of kids and it helps to sell Spider man toys.

Also I think that this is why Marvel keeps giving focus to Spider man with all of those events that happen to him in the comics. Not like the FF that are dead and buried.

@punyparker: Wow... Whoa...

Thanks for sharing.

- TAS

Merchandise : Comics,toys,napkins,Bluray's,Games,everything.

No sh!t.

Weird, everytime I go to hot topic Batman has his own section and there's only maybe like, what, 4 Spider-man items?

I think I know why this is, I work at a day care and kids always have a ton of Spider-Man merchandise (some of them don't even know who he is but they still like him). So I think it boils down to the fact that Spider-Man is the favorite character of toddlers, which is a huge market.

It's times like these I wish even more that DC invested in Firestorm, because like Spider-Man he could also tap into that market. Plus he's just an all around awesome hero.

It's a very surprising revelation, especially considering how Spider-Man has been dwindling in popularity lately.

Well,apparently he hasn't......

Some people,like you,invented it,just because his movies are bad,but some people,like you,must understand that some bad films doesn't ruin a character's popularity.

I don't get where this comes from. Spider-Man is unarguable more popular than at any time in its history. The world market is at an all time for any Spider-Man property to be viewed. The market isn't just America and Spider-Man will always be more popular overseas than Batman just because of SM's mask.

By the way ASM2 made again a sh!t ton of money for Sony, just because it's their worst box office doesn't mean it's bad and as a matter of fact, Sony can generate more revenue today than they could from the original Spider-Man movies bacuse of the digital streaming market.

@punyparker said:

It's not so much the bad film, it's the fact that Iron Man made over a billion dollars with his own film, or the fact that other hero's like Captain America and The Guardians are suddenly becoming so popular. Within the adult non comic reader mind Spider-Man is starting to seem like less of a hero for them. That being said kids still love him, and that is a very very profitable market.

@albusan: Not nearly as much money as they wanted, or as they projected.

ASM2 made $709 million . That's just about &48 million less than ASM1. That's the 6th highest grossing movie of 2014, so far. They are still making money off of it from streaming and DVD sales. It also is a pivitol property for Sony's promotion on its own streaming network. Sony is happy, that's all I got to say.

@albusan: Yeah that's a great deal of money, but it is nowhere near what they projected/needed.

It was far off from what they expected,and remember,they get nothing except Box Office.....so it's really bad.

The film cost 300 mill to make,and 200-300 to market.......the film made 700 mill........they gained like 10% from what they spent,man.......it's bad.

The only profitable market........i dont think 30 year old men,buying a Spider-Man statue once in 4 years are considered "market" so it's kids,and teens.

What do you mean by getting nothing but box office? They made money just from the trailors alone dude. Everytime someone clicks and watches the trailor they made money back from ads, their marketing cost is extremely overexagerated because of the profits they get from people wanting to see previews. The DVD sales from renting and owning the different versions of the film make them money. Also the movie helps Sony gain revenue from their streaming services that people pay for. The film alone helps Sony's tax base for all the write offs a company can get from making a movie. The internet market is more profitable than 12 years ago for the film industry. I think they did a lot better than you give them credit.

EVERYTING MARKETABLE.......goes to Marvel.
They ONLY get the box office money.

WORD HOMIE!? I Never heard that.

@albusan: Yep.Marvel bought the merchandising rights in 2012,so it's looking really shitty for them......(Sony)

Stick to cellphones and gaming consoles.....

This is no question. He is, of course lol.

@punyparker: I forgot to reply but that deal is actually for merchandise related to Spider-Man! Like toys and shirts, you know! The DVDs are not apart of the merchandise same with all the money from streaming and trailers. Disney is a company that loves making merchandise and like the other thread said Spider-Man makes them a lot of money on that end but that has nothing to do with revenue from watching the movie on DVD. Also this:

"And then in the deal, we purchased Sony Pictures' participation in Spiderman merchandising, while at the same time, Sony Pictures purchased from us our participation in Spiderman films."

Disney HAD partial film rights to the character.

And sold them to Sony to get the full merchandise rights to the movies.

This isn't a step closer to getting them back, it's a step farther from it.

That was never our topic of conversation.
I think it's hard to take him back too.

Why can't we wow if we want to?!

..but yeah, Spidey has more cross generational appeal than anyone. Bats is mega popuar with movie goers and the teenage, early 20 year old comic buyers, but Spidey has the younger kids market sewn up and is universally loved.

Like you say, such a pity sony has the movie rights.....

According to Rotten Tomatoes, out of five movies Spider-Man has to his name, three great, one is bad, and one has people on the fence. Compare that to other comic book franchises, hell compare it to most franchises in general, and it's clear that the Spider-Man film series is both one of the most financially successful, and most well received around.

Ultimate Spider-Man on TV might be too kiddy for adults to enjoy, but it's still a great kids show. In 20 years it'll be as "good" as the 90s animated series. Regardless of your feelings on it, it's making Spider-Man popular and keeping him in people's minds, that's a fact.

The comics are still highly successful and mostly well received, though the very vocal haters make it seem like otherwise.

And we now see that his merchandising is going strong, to say the absolute least. The games are the only truly weak area.

I'm not surprised Spider-Man is the most popular. However, I am shocked that it's by this wide of a margin. His competition is Batman, Superman, and the Avengers, and they only come close to him when they're all combined.

YES.

That i understand.
Avengers gained a shit ton of popularity and Batman is f*cking Batman.

Spidey solo'd everyone.

That's probably because Spider-man products were Sold out and Batman's toys were just left out

I said I see a lot more. Not that I didn't see any...

I'm not sure why anyone would find this impressive. Of course Spiderman is the worlds most profitable super hero, he has by far the most amount of general merchandise including Disney Infinity which sells like hot cakes.

In terms of popularity though, maybe when one of Spiderman's movies hits the billion dollar bullseye he'll work his way to the top.

Which honestly may happen now that Disney has the rights to Spiderman again.

So,if i ask a kid or an elderly person who's not so familiar with all of this, who's Spider-Man he WON'T know,but if i ask who's Iron Man he will?......because it made a billion?

As far as i know,movies aren't everything....

No shocker, spidey is for kiddies and the young teen demographic, he has the cutest look and friendly appeal to children more than any hero in comicbook, he might as well be a doll since he's popular with girls to.