Yeah but Sony are at least using the rights they have. Universal aren't. What I meant by making nothing is making nothing with the Marvel rights they own.
The only way that Sony will give up Spider-Man is if Bloodshot and Harbinger are huge hits and other Valiant properties prove to be profitable. If they start giving us stuff like Armorines, Eternal Warrior, Quantum and Woody, X-O Manowar, Shadowman and Ninjak, then Sony will have their own superhero universe and they won't need Spider-Man anymore and it would be more profitable to sell the live-action Spider-Man rights back since they won't need to make films about unpopular secondary characters anymore and can put their efforts into a shared universe they completely control and therefore won't have to deal with other studios interfering and will get a better cut of the merchandise since Valiant are small enough to the point where they can be bullied into sharing merch revenue. Same goes for Sony's partnership with Capcom for making films. If Monster Hunter and Mega Man aren't as bad as I fear they'll be, that's another source of easy money where they won't be aiding a rival studio's film universe.
Sony would be stupid to get rid of the Spider-Man animated rights since they can use every single Spider-Man character in animation and set up sequels for Miles Morales, Ghost Spider, Renew Your Vows, Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Man 2099. Spider-Verse blew Marvel's own recent animated films out of the water and won an Oscar. Plus animated films manage to play well with kids.
Characters like Morbius and Silver Sable are obscure and therefore risky. I have little to no idea what Sony are attempting to accomplish with their Spider-Man supporting characters films. And Venom made a ton of money but wasn't a particularly good film. It's a lot like Bayformers where even though the films are successful, they're reviled by the people who pay money to see them. I have low hopes for Morbius but it'll likely make a ton of cash.
Compare that to Universal whose Universal Monsters universe collapsed, the Fast and the Furious franchise is about to end within the next 5 years and Jurassic Park and Despicable Me are all they'll have left in terms of franchises. When you compare Universal to a studio to virtually anyone else, they're in a really bad shape. Lionsgate, Disney, WB, Sony and Paramount all have bankable franchises and licences to create films based on popular IP. Annapurna, STX and Lantern Entertainment aren't owned by a cable TV provider so they can afford to run the arthouse circuit and make smaller films without worrying about being a drag on their parent company. Universal will have to use the Hulk and Namor rights if they want to release more than one or two blockbuster films per year. The alternative is Universal creating a bunch of new IP which they can spin into franchises which may not work. If Universal work with Marvel, then they're looking at Hulk, She-Hulk, Red Hulk and Namor film series. If they don't work out a deal with Marvel, I half expect Comcast to sell Universal within a decade.
