Sony’s animated Spider-Verse movies (including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) are even more impressive than their live-action counterparts when comparing how much they each cost to make. Recent flops notwithstanding, Sony has a pretty decent track record when it comes to Spider-Man movies, with the studio opting to capitalize on its ownership of the rights to the IP repeatedly throughout the last few decades. Now that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is ostensibly defunct, however, the studio’s sights will be diverted to alternative options.

The MCU’s Spider-Man is one of these, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day continuing the wildly successful franchise in July 2026. The Spider-Verse franchise, meanwhile, falls entirely under Sony’s purview. Since Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse shattered records and expectations when it was released on June 2, 2023, the pressure is now on for Sony to first deliver Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and for the sequel to live up to expectations. If it does, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has the potential to surpᴀss even the cinematic fortunes of Spider-Man in live-action, which would be unprecedented, but not entirely unexpected.

The Spider-Verse Movies Had Far Lower Budgets Than Their Box Offices

The Spider-Verse Movies Were Universally Acclaimed

The stunning success of Sony’s Spider-Verse movies is laid bare when comparing their budgets to their global gross. The prevailing rule of thumb with all films is that they need to make 2.5x their overall budget to be considered profitable. Both Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are therefore huge successes as they made more than four times and six times their budgets, respectively.

According to The Numbers, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse grossed $374 million against a budget of $90 million, which is a better ratio than many live-action MCU movies, and a higher overall gross than the three lowest-grossing MCU movies. In general, animated movies perform worse than live-action ones, but the success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse can be credited to a number of factors. The first is its overall quality, being acclaimed for its charm, pathos, and action. The second is its decision to push the boundaries of animation.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, of course, doubled down on the best-received aspects of its predecessor and earned $681 million against a budget of $100 million for its efforts. While the high status of the prequel (which won the Oscar for “Best Animated Feature“) certainly helped this success, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was additionally praised for going even further with its distinctive art style. This certainly contributed to the extra $10 million in its budget, but that still pales in comparison to its live-action counterparts.

The Spider-Verse Movies’ Budgets Look Even More Impressive Compared With Their Live-Action Counterparts

The Movies Were Much Cheaper To Make

Sony has now attempted three Spider-Man franchises that at least feature the wall-crawler in the flesh. 2002’s Spider-Man launched Spider-Man’s cinematic success story (and, partly, the superhero genre as a whole) and earned both critical acclaim and a dizzying $823 million for its efforts against a budget of $139 million. While this is an incredible amount for an early superhero movie to earn at the time, Spider-Man‘s budget-to-gross ratio is still less than Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is the case for most other live-action Spider-Man movies.

The MCU’s Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home are two of the MCU’s most profitable movies, although the latter boasts one of the largest budgets in the MCU. The star-studded cast would have had a large part to play in this, though it is the case for most live-action Spider-Man movies that including a generous helping of CGI will also bloat the budget substantially. This could be why Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had larger budgets than Spider-Man: No Way Home despite featuring far fewer stars.

This is also what makes the budgets of Sony’s Spider-Verse movies even more impressive. The fact that the movies were entirely animated means that CGI was used extensively, yet the franchise’s highest budget (so far) of $100 million still falls short of the lowest live-action budget of $139 million, in a movie that did not make extensive use of CGI. There are several reasons for this gulf, however.

Why The Spider-Verse Movies Have Much Lower Budgets

Animated Movies Cost Less Than Live-Action Ones

A purely animated movie is far less resource-intensive than a live-action one. Although Sony’s Spider-Verse movies make liberal use of CGI, its use in an animated context is not the same as making Rhys Ifans’ Lizard, for example, as pH๏τo-realistic as possible. Costs can be further reduced with voice actors, despite Sony’s Spider-Verse movies including such high profile names as:

• Nicholas Cage (Spider-Man Noir)
• Mahershala Ali (Aaron Davis / The Prowler)
• Liev Schreiber (Wilson Fisk / Kingpin)
• Oscar Isaac (Miguel O’Hara / Spider-Man 2099)
• Daniel Kaluuya (Hobie Brown / Spider-Punk)

This is due to them spending less time on-set than their live-action colleagues, with some with smaller roles (like Andy Samberg’s Ben Reilly / Scarlet Spider, for example) possibly even voicing their lines in the space of a single day. Such costs as live-action sets, trainers for physical fight scenes, cameras, lighting rigs and crews are also (mostly) omitted when producing an animated movie. The trade-off, however, is that animation tends to take far longer – which is why Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is taking so long.

The Spider-Verse Movies’ Budget Vs Box Office Suggests Marvel Needs More Animated Films

Animated Marvel Movies Are Evidently Profitable

Although sentiments may have soured on Sony for its live-action offerings in the ill-fated Sony Spider-Man Universe, it can’t be argued that the studio hasn’t knocked it out of the park with its animated movies. Sony’s Spider-Verse movies are a prime example of how animated movies can still form an important part of the superhero movie zeitgeist if done correctly. This is something that DC, with its extensive list of animated DC movies, has been well-versed in for quite some time, after all. While Spider-Man may be excluded due to Sony’s ownership, it is still something that Marvel could stand to emulate.

While it is worth reiterating that animated movies don’t tend to gross as much as their live-action counterparts, thereby perhaps dissuading Marvel Studios from the idea, Sony’s Spider-Verse movies counteract that narrative. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse grossed more than Doctor Strange, Iron Man 2 and even Fox’s acclaimed Logan, and did so at less cost. As the MCU looks towards recuperating from losses made in the Multiverse Saga with fresh ideas, the Spider-Verse proves that it could stand to wield its wealth of talent to deliver some incredible animated movies spotlighting other, perhaps lesser-known, Marvel superheroes.

Source: The Numbers