A closer look
Sony Pictures actively declined an offer to purchase the cinematic rights to almost every single major Marvel comic book character, including Iron Man, Thor, and Black Panther, for the unbelievably low price of twenty-five million dollars in 1998. The Sony executive in charge of the negotiations reportedly told Marvel that nobody gave a single damn about any of the other characters and exclusively purchased the rights to Spider-Man for seven million dollars instead. Just over a decade later, Disney acquired Marvel and transformed those supposedly worthless secondary characters into a cinematic juggernaut that completely monopolized global pop culture and printed literal mountains of cash. You have to wonder how often that specific Sony executive wakes up in a cold sweat, haunted by the realization that they could have owned the Avengers for less money than it takes to produce a single terrible romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler
