'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Makes Broadcast Cable Debut On FX
Remember Peter Parker? No? Neither do I, but he’s in some popular movies, apparently.
It’s been a long time coming, but Spider-Man: No Way Home has left Starz, officially completing Sony Pictures’s pay-1 window licensing agreement with the premium cable network, a deal that was first made in 2005. With that, the third entry in Tom Holland’s Marvel Cinematic Universe-based turn as the heroic web-slinger joins its previous entries Homecoming and Far From Home on FX, promptly airing back to back Tuesday, with No Way Home’s premiere at 7 PM leading up to the season finale of Fargo.
In No Way Home, Peter is dealing with the immediate fallout of the public exposure of his identity by Mysterio at the end of Far From Home. When he’s bombarded by several high inconveniences and negative repercussions, he turns to Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, and the ramifications will be multiversal, fatal, and unforgettable.
The film also stars Zendaya as MJ, Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds, Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong and biggest of all, the returns of Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro, and Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as their iterations of Peter Parker/Spider-Man from their preceding respective Sam Raimi and Marc Webb-directed film series. It was written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, credited in such roles on all three films in this initial MCU Spider-Man trilogy, and directed by Jon Watts, who directed it all.
Initially released in December 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed $1,921,847,111 at the global box office, a split of $814,115,070 domestic and $1,107,732,041 international, around 42%/58%. That made it the highest-grossing film released that year, the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time, the highest grossing Spider-Man film, and broke numerous other records related and not for box office health as the industry crawled out of and subsequently turned a blind eye to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film would not arrive on Starz until July, and thus the clock of 18 months started then. The reason the film is the last to hit Starz is because in April 2021, Sony Pictures moved this window to Netflix in a pact that runs the 2022-2026 output, and started with another Tom Holland film, Uncharted.
Because the departure’s kind of fresh, none of the major streamers have the film available currently. Had the film been released at least 15 days later, it might have been on the path to Disney+ at some point this year, as they have the pay-2 window for the same 2022-2026 releases, as agreed to around the same time as the Netflix deal. It’s unknown how long it will take to become “library”-qualifying, as Far From Home hit Disney+ in November as part of their deal.
Since I’m writing this as the climax plays out, it’s probably worth it to alert to the next airings (in Eastern time). They are at 5 PM tomorrow, January 17, and then a double bill at 7 and 10 PM on January 28. Don’t forget, like you forgot who Spider-Man was thanks to the spell. Who was Spider-Man? What spell? Oh nevermind. Check your provider’s listings.
Sources: Deadline, Box Office Mojo, Zap2It