Spider-Man is coming home MarvelSpider-Man will soon stand alongside The Avengers on the big screen.Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios reached an agreement to reunite Spiderman with the rest of the Marvel film universe. The Spider-Man character was sold to Sony Pictures SNE, +1.44% in 1999 for $7 million as Marvel Entertainment, now owned by the Walt Disney Co. DIS, -0.17%floundered. The first Spider-Man movie, which starred Tobey Maguire, hit theaters in 2002 and garnered $114 million in its opening weekend, according to website Box Office Mojo. Approximately $4 billion in worldwide box office receipt later, Spidey will reunite with the rest of the Marvel Universe heros in a movie helmed by Marvel Studios and Sony’s Amy Pascal. “This is exciting news,” said Paul Degarabedian, senior media analyst for Rentrak. “For Sony and Marvel to team up in a way they haven’t really done before is going to have a huge benefit for both parties. It’s like Sony and Marvel are assembling, much like the Avengers.” Sony isn’t the only studio that cashed in on Marvel’s heros. Before the comic book company found success with “Iron Man” and joined forces with Disney in 2009, it sold the rights to X-Men and The Fantastic Four to 21st Century Fox FOX, +0.79%Marvel also signed over rights to The Incredible Hulk to Universal Studios, but the company gave the rights back in 2003. Sony’s 2012 “The Amazing Spider-Man” franchise reboot starring Andrew Garfield failed to generate the same fervor that propelled its 2002 counterpart. Sony’s Spider-Man box office numbers have seen shrinking returns, with the 2014 iteration of the comic franchise off by nearly 50% compared to its blockbuster 2002 debut, as the chart illustrates. “The bar was set very high (after the first Spider-Man movie) and subsequent installments just didn’t live up to it,” Degarabedian said. “This combo will bring Spider-Man back to its box office glory.” To be sure, a cool $200 million is nothing to sneeze at for the 2014 Spider-Man flick but compare that with Iron Man, which Marvel Studios released in 2008, which grossed $318.4 million and established the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a reliable hit maker. All of Marvel’s movies made for its cinematic universe have combined to gross a whopping $7.1 billion worldwide. Degarabedian said that collaboration and that the “creative genius” Marvel possesses will be imperative to success. As it stands, the new Spider-Man will debut in a Marvel film before the character’s solo film, which will be co-produced by Feige and his team at Marvel in collaboration with former Sony Pictures head Amy Pascal. Sony Pictures will continue to own, finance, distribute and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films, according to a Marvel press release. “But Marvel Studios is involved in every aspect of producing a movie, especially from a creative aspect,” Degarabedian said. “The casting is going to be absolutely key.” That is the next big question on fans’ minds. Under this agreement, Andrew Garfield will almost certainly no longer be swinging across the Manhattan skyline. Twitter’s favorite to take up the mantle seems to rapper, actor, comedian Donald Glover. He would have to do so as Miles Morales, a Marvel character who became Spider-Man after the more popular Peter Parker. “Any time you breath new blood into a franchise that’s had its ups and downs, that’s the best kind of collaboration,” Degarabedian said. “Sony has done an amazing job with this franchise, there’s no diminishing that, but to bring Spider-Man home—this has been a long time coming.” Trey Williams