After 18 years and more than 50 superhero movies and television series, Marvel Studios has one of the biggest hits in its history with a preschool cartoon called “Spidey and his Amazing Friends.”
The series has been watched—and re-watched—for about 1.25 billion hours since its 2021 launch, according to Nielsen, making it Marvel’s most popular television series. It starts three- and four-year-olds on an escalator of Spider-Man content that leads them to TV shows and movies aimed at grade-schoolers, teenagers and adults.
“The dream for a fictional character is to be able to resonate across generations for generations,” said Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
The strategy should help prime audiences for this week’s new movie “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Produced by Marvel and released by Sony Pictures, it is expected to have the biggest box office opening of the year, based on advance sales and audience research.
Spider-Man’s continued success stands out at a time when audiences appear tired of Hollywood’s superhero deluge. Marvel has had a number of underperforming films in the past several years and has significantly pulled back on TV production. Rival DC Studios, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, recently bombed at the box office with “Supergirl.”
But Spider-Man has remained a profit machine for nearly a quarter-century. He stars in Marvel’s top selling comic book, appears in theme parks and on cruise ships, and is parent company Disney’s second most lucrative consumer-products brand, behind only Mickey Mouse.
Gen Z largely views superheroes as entertainment for older generations. But just over 70% of the audience for Spider-Man movies and TV series are between 17 and 33. The teenage superhero’s fans skew younger than those of Batman, Superman and even Harry Potter, according to research firm Parrot Analytics, whose data doesn’t include children. Three-quarters of Spider-Man’s audience is male, slightly below Batman and Superman, but higher than Potter.
Unlike the wealthy playboy Iron Man, the alien Superman, or the Amazon princess Wonder Woman, Spider-Man was created in 1962 to be relatable for comic book readers. He’s typically portrayed as a socially awkward young man named Peter Parker with romantic, financial and family problems. His trademark quips are a coping mechanism for his insecurity.
“The stories are always told from an emotional place,” said Amy Pascal, who helped launch Spider-Man onto the big screen when she ran Sony Pictures and now produces his movies. “People think boys don’t want to be moved, but they do.”
When two year-old Arlo Medina doesn’t want to get dressed or sit down for dinner, he sticks his hands out and pretends to shoot webs at his parents, just like the star of his favorite cartoon.
“He calls it ‘Byber-Man’ and as soon as he wakes up, he asks if he can watch it,” said Arlo’s mother Brianne, who lives in Pasadena, Calif.
Before “Spidey and his Amazing Friends” made its debut on cable network Disney Jr. and streaming service Disney+ in 2021, showrunner Harrison Wilcox and his collaborators tried to determine what aspects of the character worked for toddlers like Arlo.
They scrapped Peter Parker’s haunting sense of responsibility for his uncle’s death, his working-class hustle, and the lonesomeness of his secret identity. They made him a young child who has turned into a dinosaur, become a pirate, and, in the recently launched fifth season, met an adorable troublemaker named Symbie who’s inspired by the gruesome Spider-Man villain Venom.
Even with all the changes, the show’s creators tried to keep what they see as the essence of their superhero. “Spidey always does the right thing, even if it’s hard,” Wilcox said. “That’s why he translates so well to fans of every age.”
Because every Disney Jr. program needs an educational element, Wilcox’s team built “Amazing Friends” around teamwork. The young Spider-Man fights crime with super pals named Spin and Ghost-Spider.
The show’s success has made all three characters inescapable for parents of young children who see them on T-shirts, lunchboxes and bounce houses.
Nik Ewing had an entertainer playing Ghost-Spider at his daughter Linnéa’s fourth birthday party and waited in a long line so she could meet Spider-Man at Disneyland. He said he finds “Spidey” more challenging to watch than other shows Linnéa likes because it can feel like a toy commercial.
“With ‘Bluey,’ I’ve teared up if the right episode hit me at the right time,” said the Los Angeles dad of the animated blue puppy. “I can confidently say ‘Spidey’ has never hit me emotionally.”
Disney Jr. is now building a Marvel preschool universe of sorts. “Iron Man and his Awesome Friends” premiered last year and will be renamed “Avengers: Mightiest Friends” in 2027. The tiny superheroes, of course, appear on each others’ shows.
“This has absolutely been the best example of introducing our characters, or, I should say, a certain side of our characters, to a young audience,” said Feige.
The company’s hope is that fans of “Spidey” will graduate to its grade-school cartoon on Disney+, called “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man,” and then start watching the movies. While Sony keeps all the money the films earn, Marvel benefits from the boost they give to merchandise sales.
After it licensed the Spider-Man film and live-action TV rights from then-struggling comic book publisher Marvel, Sony launched the modern superhero movie era with a blockbuster 2002 adaptation starring Tobey Maguire. Nine live-action films followed, the last four of which were made with Marvel Studios.
Sony’s two animated “Spider-Verse” movies, which feature an alternate version of the superhero named Miles Morales, were award-winning hits that attracted younger audiences. A third is coming next year.
Sony has also made Spider-Man villain spinoffs including the hit “Venom” trilogy and flops like “Madame Web” and “Kraven the Hunter.”
But the live-action films about Peter Parker remain most popular. At the end of 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Peter made everyone he knows forget who he is in order to protect them. His search to re-establish relationships in “Brand New Day” is intended to be relatable for young adults in the 2020s.
“Everybody longs for connections, even though the world we live in is separating us as fast as possible,” said Pascal. “That felt like it worked perfectly with our story, because we put Peter in a situation where he was alone again.”
Visit Wall Street Journal to read this article.
