Spider man far from home in theaters

Tom Holland stars as Peter Parker in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Sony

Spider-Man, the Na'vi and a ragtag group of galactic rebels are making their way back to theaters at the end of the summer.

Disney is releasing Star Wars prequel "Rogue One" and "Avatar" in domestic theaters in the coming weeks, while Sony will release a souped-up version of "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Rereleases are nothing new in the industry, especially when it comes to major anniversary milestones for popular and iconic features, but 90% of those showings are scheduled through Fathom Events, not by the studios themselves, according to data from Comscore. Fathom is a joint venture between AMC, Regal and Cinemark that brings legacy titles back to cinemas for limited engagements.

The timing of Disney and Sony's rereleases comes as the box office ticket sales are down 30% compared to 2019, and there have been 30% fewer movies released in theaters. There are few prominent film releases over the coming weeks until Universal and Blumhouse's "Halloween Ends" on Oct. 14 and Warner Bros.' "Black Adam" on Oct. 21.

Read more entertainment coverage

Not only is there space on the calendar for Disney and Sony to place these films in cinemas, but their appearances are part of a wider strategy, especially for Disney, to promote upcoming theatrical and streaming debuts.

"Rogue One," a Star Wars solo film first released in 2016, arrives in theaters once again on Aug. 26, one month before its spin-off series "Andor" debuts on Disney+. The film will be accompanied by an exclusive look at the new series, and is exclusively available in IMAX.

"Spider-Man: No Way Home – The More Fun Stuff," a production collaboration between Sony and Disney's Marvel Studios, arrives Sept. 2 just in time to celebrate 60 years of the Spider-Man comic and 20 years of Spider-Man films. The updated version features added and extended scenes.

Then, on Sept. 23, "Avatar" returns to domestic theaters, three months before its sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water" debuts and 13 years after its first theatrical run.

"For studios, a re-release of a specific title can serve ostensibly as a two-hour infomercial to remind audiences of the upcoming latest installment of a particular movie franchise, or TV series," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.  "And for theaters these special releases can provide much needed filmed content within a slower corridor on the release calendar."

Avatar

Source: Walt Disney Studios

"Avatar," in particular, "is the most significant" of the upcoming releases, said Shawn Robbins, chief media analyst at BoxOffice.com. "It could give us an early indication as to where anticipation stands for 'The Way of Water.'"

Also notable is the focus on IMAX, Robbins said. Movie theater operators have indicated throughout the year that guests have been opting for premium formats far more than before the pandemic. This includes IMAX, Dolby, 3D and other experiences that offer immersive seating or panoramic screens.

"Those formats continue to represent an important part of exhibition's present and future, and there is truly no way to ever experience movies in those formats again once they leave theaters," Robbins said. 

Not to mention, once audiences are in theaters, operators have seen them spending much more on food and drinks, as well.

"It's a  win-win for studios and movie theaters," Dergarabedian said.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. Universal is the distributor of "Halloween Ends."

Almost no movie in recent memory has made an impact on the same level as Spider-Man: No Way Home, which broke the box office and the internet alike as 2021 came to an end. Becoming one of the best-reviewed blockbusters this century and one of the most successful movies to ever play in theaters, No Way Home was a cultural phenomenon as three generations of web-slinger stories came together in one adventure.

The final runtime for No Way Home's theatrical cut clocked in at 148 minutes, which gave the threequel the fourth-longest length of any MCU movie to date, behind Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Eternals. While that amount of footage brought plenty of incredible moments from start to finish, many fans still felt like there was some material that was left on the editing room table.

Over the past few months, fans have learned about deleted scenes that could have added even more excitement to the already thrilling threequel. This included more material with Charlie Cox's Daredevil in his first MCU movie along with an extended version of the Peter Parker vs. the Green Goblin fight when Norman Osborn first arrived, and this was seemingly just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, Sony has plans to share more of that unseen material with fans as No Way Home comes back into the spotlight once again.

No Way Home Coming Back to Theaters

The official @SpiderManMovie Twitter account announced that Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios will be bringing an extended version Spider-Man: No Way Home back to theaters.

The announcement was made via video by Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, joking around before confirming that the movie would make its way back to theaters in the United States and Canada on Friday, September 2 (the start of Labor Day weekend). This extended cut is being advertised as "The More Fun Stuff Version" and will include never-before-seen footage from the MCU threequel, as was rumored in February.

Noted insider Amit Chaudhari shared the names of five deleted scenes that Sony plans to include in this cut, mentioning that the studio was "saving these & more to cross $2 billion" at the box office. These scenes will add over 15 minutes to the theatrical cut's 148-minute runtime:

• Interrogation Scene Extended - 2:25
• Peter Day at Midtown High - 5:25
• Undercroft Montage - 1:35
• Happy’s Very Good Lawyer - 1:35
• The Spideys Hang Out - 4:25

Tickets will be available for this new cut on Tuesday, August 9, just over three weeks before The More Fun Stuff Version comes to the big screen.

This is the third time an MCU movie has gotten a major theatrical re-release, following Avengers: Endgame in June 2019 (which included six minutes of additional footage) and Spider-Man: Far From Home in August 2019 (with four minutes of extra scenes). Sony has also done this on two separate occasions, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage returning to theaters this January and Morbius making a disappointing return in early June.

The full video announcement for the extended cut can be seen below:

Fans Ready for More Spider-Man Footage

With re-releases becoming more of a trend than an aberration, it's almost no surprise that Spider-Man: No Way Home became the latest film to gain a second run in theaters within the MCU.

The movie will now be close to 165 minutes long (a 17-minute extension) with the deleted scenes that will be added to the plot, expanding on some of the threequel's biggest moments that were much shorter in the theatrical cut. It should be particularly exciting to see more interaction between Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield as they learn about themselves and each other's universes on a deeper level.

It's also unknown just how much new footage will be added to No Way Home, with the tweet indicating that more than just those five scenes could find a way into the film. There was also even more potential madness planned out for the final battle, including a rematch between Maguire's Spidey and the Green Goblin, but the full details will remain a mystery until September comes around.

This release should also push the threequel closer to the $2 billion mark at the global box office, which would make it only the sixth movie in history to do so (two others being Infinity War and Endgame). The Multiversal event won't need much of a boost to cross its next billion-dollar milestone, as the movie currently sits at $1.89 billion, leaving only $110 million to go.

No matter what the results turn out to be, it appears to be a win-win for everybody involved as Sony gets to bring No Way Home back into prominence and fans get to relive the experience in theaters once again.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now available for purchase digitally and via Blu-ray. The threequel will be back in theaters for its re-release on September 9. 

Is Spider

Is Spider

Where can I watch Spider

When can I see Spider