Spider-Man, a superhero character created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for comic books published by Marvel Comics, has appeared in film since CBS's 1977 television film pilot, for the program The Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel Comics pursued plans for a feature film in the 1980s in a tumultuous development process that involved multiple directors, writers, and financiers. After protracted litigation over the Spider-Man copyrights, Sony Pictures and its subsidiary Columbia obtained the film rights for $7 million from Marvel in 1999.
Beginning in the 2000s, Columbia developed a film trilogy starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, which includes Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007). The original film, in particular, greatly influenced Hollywood's conception of superheroes. A reboot series featuring Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man followed, consisting of The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). Sony then licensed the rights to Marvel Studios in a renewed agreement, yielding a succession of films that incorporated the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The MCU features a version of Spider-Man played by Tom Holland, beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016). The animated Spider-Verse centers on a cast of Spider-Men led by Miles Morales, the main protagonist voiced by Shameik Moore. Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) operates with a loosely shared continuity to all existing Spider-Man film franchises but does not explicitly feature the character. Amateur films about Spider-Man explore a range of interpretations from ordinary people.
The mainstream Spider-Man films have been highly successful and make up the second highest-grossing film franchise of all time, collectively grossing over $11 billion worldwide. Critical opinion of films skew positive, occasionally garnering Academy Awards recognition for achievement in special effects and animation.
