‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Reached James Bond Levels of Merchandising
Despite the fact that Spider-Man is Marvel‘s most popular and successful character - by the comic book standards, anyways - the studio hasn’t left anything to the imagination in the Spider-Man: Homecoming marketing blitz. We’ve seen Tom Holland‘s face on everything from car commercials to NBA spots to computer advertisements, ensuring that everyone around the world knew that a Spider-Man film was going to be in theaters this weekend. Heck, we were probably one hip-hop song away from throwing the whole franchise back to the nineties heydays of corporate synergy. It sure seemed like Mr. Parker was everywhere we looked.
And thanks to Deadline, we now have some numbers to match our gut suspicions. New estimates have Spider-Man: Homecoming wracking up $140 million dollars in global across thirty brands, a number that Deadline suggests is “on par dollar-wise” to the promotional push of Daniel Craig’s most recent James Bond movies. Those movies were so heavily cross-promoted that entire features were written - like this one in The Guardian or this one by the BBC - suggesting that maybe the studio’s attempts to market their film were negatively affecting the perception of the movies themselves.
The article also notes that these promotional tie-ins wildly eclipse those of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the summer’s other big Marvel release, which only grossed about $80 million in marketing promotions. Why did Marvel choose to merchandise this movie so much harder than the others? It turns out Deadline has an answer for that:
Now when it comes to merchandising, we hear that’s where Marvel benefits the most because the studio controls that aspect of Spider-Man while Sony has the feature film license.
So there you have it. Marvel’s deal with Sony ensures gives them a smaller chunk of the film and a bigger chunk of the merchandise, so unsurprisingly, Marvel has decided to go all-in on its merchandising opportunities to maximize its return. So the next time you sit down to watch a little baseball and you wonder why Peter Parker is trying to sell you a coffee maker, just know that those coffee makers are ensuring the success of Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 and beyond. If that's your thing.