With a sneak peek of X-Men: Days of Future Past appearing at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, some fans are convinced that we are getting closer to seeing a crossover that will feature all of our favorite Marvel heroes in one movie. Since characters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Iron Man began appearing in separate movies over a decade ago, the biggest movie wish for most fans is to see all of them in the ultimate Marvel crossover movie. But no matter what little steps have been taken, we are decades away from seeing a Marvel Crossover movie happening, if it ever happens. No matter how much fans hope for it or even beg for it, the movie rights of these characters are firmly tied up for the foreseeable future by Disney/Marvel Studios, 20th Century Fox, and Sony. Nonetheless, there are legions of fans that either refuse to believe that this Marvel mega-movie project wont be happening or are in outright denial. Yet there are dozens of reasons why this project cannot happen - not only because of the rights issues, but because it just doesnt make good business sense for the studios. So with that in mind, here are ten of the most significant reasons why you wont see Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America battling side-by-side on screen anytime soon.
10. The Avengers Movies Are Far More Popular Than Spider-Man And X-Men Movies
The Avengers is #3 on the all-time highest grossing box office list with $1.52 billion worldwide. Only eighteen films have ever made more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office, and two of those films are Disney/Marvel releases, The Avengers and Iron Man 3 (which made $1.22 billion worldwide, placing it at #5 on the list). As for Sony's Spider-Man franchise, the highest grossing movie is 2007's Spider-Man 3 at $890.9 million worldwide, which places it at #31 on the list. The highest grossing X-Men film, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, is much further down that all-time list at #143 with a total gross of $459.4 million worldwide. You know what movies have made more money worldwide than X-Men: The Last Stand? Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and that's still in theatres). If we use total box office to gauge popularity with moviegoers, most of the Avengers characters are far more popular than the X-Men and The Avengers as a whole are a great deal more popular than Spider-Man. Even if The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past do better than expected in theatres, they aren't likely to come close to the box office of The Avengers. Disney's Marvel franchises are doing extraordinarily well on their own, so why would Disney let Sony and/or Fox piggyback off its successes? They are Disneys competition, so it makes no sense from a business standpoint to collaborate when Disneys movies are doing so much better.