'Spider-Man, Spider-Man... does whatever a spider can.' Who knew that the 1967 Spider-Man theme song would be so prophetic?

While spending too much time armchair analyzing box office numbers can be numbing and granular, I recently took a step back to analyze the total box office for all the Marvel Studios movies, breaking down their announced budgets, their worldwide box office, and even adjusted the numbers for inflation. In 2008 when the Iron Man movie was released, it could buy you roughly twice what a $1 bill can now in 2025.

From looking at the 30+ movies in this widescreen way, certain trends come into focus - but most surprising, to me, was about Spider-Man. Yeah, I know he's kind of a big deal, but what the numbers tell us is that he is the big deal in the MCU. 

Spider-Man: Is he strong? Listen, bud 

The MCU version of Spider-Man is a guaranteed $1 billion movie franchise. All three movies have earned in excess of a billion dollars, with the only other Marvel Studios franchises able to do that are ensemble cast movies like the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. From that alone, Tom Holland's Spider-Man track record beats out MCU pillars like Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Evans' Captain America, and even the MCU's longest-running solo franchise star in Chris Hemsworth's Thor.

But when you look at it further, Tom Holland's Spider-Man does that while also keeping its budget relatively modest by modern blockbuster standards. Adjusted for inflation, all 3 Spider-Man movies are in the bottom third of budgets - hovering around $190m to $230m. In comparison, time has shown you can't make a Captain America movie for less than $230m (unless Brave New World indeed hits their $180m budget), a Guardians movie for less than $250m, or an Avengers movie for less than $300m. 

Looking even deeper, the second Tom Holland movie - Spider-Man: Far From Home - has the unique distinction of being the lowest-budgeted of all MCU movies to date, adjusted for inflation. It comes in at a respectable $195.2m, beating out the original Iron Man ($203m), the first Thor ($208.5m), and everything else.

When you combine those two things - a relatively low budget with a $1b+ track record of revenue, you end up with the three Spider-Man movies making the most for the least for Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures.

To put it another way, with the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures have earned at least $5 for every $1 spent on the movie. That return on investment (ROI) puts it in the top 10 of MCU movies.... but that's just with the first movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming. 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home has a 7x ROI, the second highest in the MCU - beaten only by the big one.

No, not Avengers: Endgame.

It's 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, which earned $9.61 for every dollar spent. While Avengers: Endgame earned a record-setting 3.4 billion at the global box office, it cost nearly a half billion. Tom Holland's third Spider-Man did 2.2 billion off a budget nearly half of the last Avengers movie. 

Maybe this is why Spider-Man is the only character on the checks Marvel sends out to vendors.

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• The MCU needs Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik in it (and not just for the X-Men connection)
• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.