Spider-Man: No Way Home was the first film in the pandemic to hit $1 billion in global box office receipts. But even as months have passed since its theatrical release, and even as it has become available to buy online, the movie still isn’t streaming on a subscription service at all.
Even though actor Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appears routinely in Disney’s Marvel movies, that doesn’t mean the latest Spider-Man movie is coming anywhere near Disney Plus anytime soon.
And last year saw an unprecedented number of new theatrical movies released on streaming services the same day they hit cinemas. HBO Max, in particular, became synonymous with the practice. But HBO Max isn’t — and won’t — be streaming Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Sony Pictures is the distributor behind No Way Home, and its deal with Starz means Now Way Home will stream there eventually.
Where and when will Spider-Man: No Way Home be available to stream?
It’s likely that No Way Home will be available to stream through Starz sometime between late June and early August, but the network hasn’t confirmed the date yet.
Sony has an agreement in place for its 2021 movies to go to the premium cable network Starz first, where they’re available to watch on its traditional channels as well as on its streaming app. So Starz will be the first place you’ll be able to stream this latest Sony movie. Traditionally, a movie like No Way Home would make its way to Starz roughly six to nine months after its theatrical release.
In February, the Hollywood trade publication Deadline reported that No Way Home was expected to arrive on Starz within six months, which would put the movie’s streaming release sometime before early August
If No Way Home follows the precedent of Sony’s previous Spider-Man universe movie, it may arrive on Starz as soon as early July. Sony initially released Venom: Let There Be Carnage in theaters on Oct. 1, and it arrived to stream on Starz about six and a half months later, on April 22. That’s a span of slightly more than 200 days between its theatrical release and its subscription-streaming release. If No Way Home sticks to the same timeline, it’ll be available on or around July 4.
Will Spider-Man: No Way Home ever be on Disney Plus?
It’s possible, but it won’t be on Disney Plus anytime in the near future, unless Disney and Sony strike a new bargain.
Spider-Man, as a character, derives from Marvel, but Disney’s Marvel has a complicated license-sharing deal with Sony for the Spider-Man characters on film. Basically, Sony is in charge of making and distributing standalone Spider-Man universe movies, and then Disney’s Marvel can “borrow” the characters for films in its own Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s why Tom Holland’s Spider-Man shows up in the Avengers movies.
That’s also why you can stream some movies on Disney Plus featuring Holland as Spider-Man — but you can’t stream any of the Spider-Man specific films there.
The same arrangement extends to the Venom movies and the Morbius film coming this year. Those are Marvel characters, but the films are Sony-distributed flicks, so they aren’t destined for Disney Plus anytime soon.
You may have read some articles about how Spider-Man movies will be coming to Disney Plus thanks to a new deal struck last year. That’s true but it’s tricky — the deal may not apply to No Way Home.
Disney secured a deal with Sony in April to stream some catalog Spider-Man movies as well as Sony movies released in theaters between 2022 and 2026. First of all, those 2022-2026 theatrical releases won’t make it onto Disney Plus for many, many months; they’ll actually be exclusively on Netflix first. But since No Way Home’s theatrical release was in 2021, that part of the deal doesn’t apply to it anyway. Second, neither Sony nor Disney are confirming when — or even if — No Way Home would be considered a “catalog” movie that could stream on Disney Plus.
Bottom line: If you’re holding your breath for No Way Home to stream on Disney Plus, it’ll be a long time before you can exhale — if ever.
Will Spider-Man: No Way Home stream on HBO Max?
No, not for the foreseeable future.
HBO Max streams every Warner Bros. movie, and it’s known for aggressively securing the TV and streaming rights to top films. And HBO Max has been closely linked with the concept of same-day streaming, since it released more movies this way than any other streaming service. This has created some misguided hope among moviegoers when any new movie hits theaters. Without knowing which studio is distributing that new flick, lots of people get curious about whether it’s one of the movies available on HBO Max too.
But Spider-Man is being distributed by Sony, not Warner Bros., and HBO doesn’t have a deal to stream Sony movies first, so No Way Home isn’t en route to HBO Max.
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