Spider-Man: Brand New Day Makes MCU History In One Incredible Way

Since Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened, it’s been making all kinds of history. Most of that history pertains to its incredible box office performance. It seems like every day, Brand New Day is breaking a different record, outperforming initial expectations in a way even the rosiest optimists couldn’t have predicted. It’s all but a guarantee that Brand New Day will eventually cross the $2 billion mark, becoming just the eighth film in history to accomplish that remarkable feat. It’s easy to see why Brand New Day‘s box office gross has made plenty of headlines the past few weeks, but the film’s made notable history in a way some fans may not have even considered.

Like most Marvel Cinematic Universe installments these days, Brand New Day features a bevy of characters. The story primarily revolves around Peter Parker, of course, but he crosses paths with everyone from Frank Castle to Bruce Banner to Yelena Belova and even Jean Grey. That varied lineup is historic because of how it ties all of Marvel’s on-screen history together.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s Cast Makes Marvel Movie History

With its cast of characters, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the first Marvel movie to combine heroes from five different studios/platforms:

• Sony: Spider-Man and all related characters, like Scorpion, Ned Leeds, MJ, and Aunt May.
• Fox: Jean Grey, whose film rights belonged to 20th Century Fox (along with the rest of the X-Men characters) before the Disney/Fox merger became official.
• Universal: Hulk, whose film rights are quite complicated. Marvel Studios can freely use Hulk in their projects (like Avengers movies and Thor: Ragnarok), but Universal maintains right of first refusal on solo Hulk movies. If Marvel ever made another solo Hulk film, Universal would distribute and get a share of the profits.
• Marvel Television: The Punisher, who made his debut on the Daredevil Netflix series.
• Disney: Yelena Belova, whose film rights have always belonged to Marvel/Disney.

This puts the concept of a “shared cinematic universe” in a whole new light, with Sony and Marvel working together to mix and match characters from a variety of sources. It’s something die-hard Marvel fans could only dream of in the early 2000s, when the film rights to prominent characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men were tied up at different studios and the concept of those studios striking a deal for crossovers was incomprehensible. It’s easy to forget now, but as the MCU was becoming the premier franchise in Hollywood, Sony thought they could make their own massive comic book universe without Marvel’s help. When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 disappointed, Sony reached an agreement with Disney, and the rest is history.

The Disney/Sony partnership has been a smashing success, with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker firmly established as one of the faces of the MCU. Spider-Man is such a popular character that he’d likely be a box office draw even without the MCU connections (The Amazing Spider-Man 2 still made $716.9 million worldwide), but the ties to the larger shared universe have definitely increased the appeal of the Holland-led films. Half of the fun of MCU films is watching the characters interact with each other. In the comics, Spider-Man has shared pages with a wide range of other heroes, and now we get to see those encounters come to life in entertaining and poignant ways.

With Jean Grey playing such a key role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, something interesting to consider is whether or not Fox would have followed Sony’s footsteps had the Disney acquisition not happened. If 20th Century Fox was still is own entity operating independently, would the mutants be part of the MCU? The film industry is a business, so Fox executives probably would have noticed MCU Spider-Man films making $1 billion and decided it was time to get in on that action. If Marvel could make something work with Sony, odds are they would have done something with Fox as well. As the box office numbers indicate, these kinds of partnerships are mutually beneficial.