When Does ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse’ Come Out on Digital?

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ quickly became a hit worldwide, and it is one of the most successful animated sequels we witnessed in a long time. Its animation, amazing storyline, and characters charmed audiences worldwide, and consequently, it earned more than $500m at the box office at the moment of writing this article. The critical and commercial success of the movie was historical, but despite the great reception of the fans, many people didn’t get a chance to watch the movie in theaters and decided to wait for the streaming services to add ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ to their digital libraries. So when will ‘Across the Spider-Verse‘ come on digital platforms?

After Sony and Netflix signed their new five-year deal in 2021, it was established that Sony’s content would be available on Netflix platforms at least five months after the theater release. With that being said, the ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ movie will be available on Netflix platforms in September or October of 2023, while Disney+ will have the same movie on their platforms after 18 months. However, the movie will most likely be available on digital VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple, and YouTube, where people will be able to rent a movie just before the same project hits Netflix later this year.

The movies after theater release are always reserved for particular streaming platforms, especially blockbusters, and despite ‘Spider-Verse’ being on Netflix at first, that doesn’t mean that the sequel will be strictly reserved for one streaming service. Stick with us to see where and when ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ will be on digital platforms.

What is the deal with Sony’s Spider-Man and Disney?

If you are a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, you will know all about the movie or TV rights of certain Marvel properties. If we look back to the 1990s, and 2000s, big superhero characters/groups like Fantastic Four and X-Men were part of the deal where Fox Studios held the movie and TV rights of these notable Marvel characters.

After a few successful and failed projects from the Fox Studios, Marvel Studios decided to create their own cinematic universe, later known as Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with the first Iron Man movie. While Fox held ‘Fantastic Four‘ and X-Men movies and TV rights, Sony had their own rights to one notable Marvel character – in 1999, Sony acquired film and TV rights to Spider-Man.

This was a huge acquisition, and since then, Sony has produced two Spider-Man movie franchises with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. However, in 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony agreed to “share” Spider-Man or, in other words, Spider-Man will be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which at that point became enormous and wanted to expand its stories further.

Since Tom Holland became Spider-Man and part of the MCU, streaming platforms have become huge worldwide, with Netflix becoming the biggest streaming service leading the “pack.”

Of course, Disney saw the potential of these streaming platforms and created their own called Disney+ and started expanding its “kingdom” across the American film and TV industry. Disney (the owner of Marvel Studios) finally brought X-Men and Fantastic Four “home” by purchasing 21st Century Fox Studios and making their MCU stories expand even more.

While Marvel developed MCU, Sony decided to create their own cinematic universe with Venom being at the forefront and the potential of connecting with Spider-Man, but the true success came with the animated movie, ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.’ In 2018, this movie focused on another Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and retold the story from Marvel Comics, where dozens of versions of Spider-Men team up to save the Multiverse. The movie was an instant success, both commercially and critically, and the sequel was equally exciting.

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘ was released on the 1st of June and was an instant success. Not everyone could watch the movie in theaters, and most fans decided to wait for the movie to be released on streaming platforms.

So, how do these “technicalities” bode with the movie coming to streaming platforms? Well, more than you realize – deals were made since 2015, and more possibilities for digital streaming and potential crossovers between Sony and MCU arose.

When will ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ come to digital streaming platforms?

We already mentioned that in 2018, Sony released ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,’ an instant success. However, at that point in time, Sony already had a deal with Netflix, where the streaming platform would have Sony content in their library, including all Spider-Man projects.

‘Into the Spider-Verse’ moved to Netflix after its theatrical release, and the streaming platform made huge profits from the movie. Besides Spider-Man content, other Sony projects were moved to Netflix after the end of their theatrical release, and the successful partnership was extended in 2021.

During that year, Sony decided to extend their cooperation with Netflix but with a small twist. Sony and Disney started working more together in the last few years and decided to “share” Spider-Man a bit more. First, Sony made a deal with Netflix called “pay one window.”

The so-called “pay one window” includes that every Sony project will eventually be released to Netflix. In the case of Spider-Man content, Sony made a deal with Netflix and Disney; the latter paid for a “pay two window,” which suggests that after 18 months of Netflix holding streaming rights to Sony’s Spider-Man, Disney+ will have steaming rights for ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’

This means that ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ will most definitely be available on Netflix after the end of its theatrical release, and after 18 months expires, Disney+ will take over the streaming rights of the movie and add it to their library.

So, when does ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ arrive on digital platforms? Well, if we look into the track record between Sony and Netflix, the movies always arrive on the streaming platform after at least five months. For example, the movie ‘The Woman King’ was released in September 2022 and arrived on Netflix in February 2023. Of course, the same goes for most Sony projects, but these dates are mostly correct for Netflix US, and the rest of the world might need to wait longer for Sony’s content to arrive on the platform.

If we look at that particular example, we can expect ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ to arrive on Netflix in October or November of 2023. It will be especially interesting since the third franchise installment will be released in theaters in March 2024.

Of course, this stands corrected for Netflix US, and international fans might wait a bit longer. Besides Netflix, fans can rent the movie from Amazon Prime, YouTube, or Apple, where one can pay to watch the VOD (Video on Demand) of ‘Across the Spider-Verse.’

Following these examples, the Spider-Man movie will most likely arrive on Disney+ somewhere around 2025.

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