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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
Jesse Hassenger

Web of billions: how Spider-Man became the most heroic franchise in Hollywood

spider-man
Tom Holland in a scene from Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Photograph: Sony Pictures via AP

A year ago, the superhero-industrial complex looked like it was on the wane. All three of Marvel’s big movies for 2025 underperformed to some degree or another, outgrossed by DC’s newest reboot of Superman – which itself made less than any number of previous-regime DC movies, and was followed up by this summer’s Supergirl, a costly bomb. It looked as if the age of heroes might be coming to an end, and only seemed fitting that the next big Avengers movie was subtitled Doomsday (and had resigned itself to sharing a release date with the Imax-grabbing release of a third Dune movie).

But look out, as the song goes: here comes Spider-Man.

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