Reacting to the fact that Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the lowest-grossing film in franchise history, Sony has delayed the debut of Amazing Spider-Man 3 from 2016 to 2018, while inserting the Spider-Man spin-off film Sinister Six into the studio’s 2016 schedule with a debut slated for November 11th, 2016.  While Marc Webb was slated to direct ASM 3, this scheduling move certainly puts his participation in doubt.
 
Sony raised a few eyebrows with its plans for a second Spider-Man origin trilogy that debuted just five years after the final film in Sam Raimi’s original trilogy ended.  While Webbs ASM 2 has earned $706 million worldwide, that was $50 million less than ASM 1 earned.  ASM 2 also cost $230 million to produce, and when promotional costs are added in it appears that the film was not much of moneymaker for the studio, especially when considering the fact that the studio receives well under 50% of ticket sales from overseas venues, which accounted for 71% of the film’s global earnings.
 
Sony is obviously enamored with the Spider-Man spin-off project Sinister Six, which Drew Goddard is directing (see "'Sinister Six' Gets Director").  The original team of super villains known as The Sinister Six was formed by Doctor Octopus and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 in 1964.  The original team also included Vulture, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, and Sandman.  Of course the composition of the group has changed many times over the years, so the make-up of the Sinister Six movie team should provide plenty of publicity opportunities as the members of the team are revealed one-by-one.
 
Ironically one of the main criticisms leveled at Amazing Spider-Man #2 (and also at Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3) was that the film was overstuffed with plot lines and villains.  How dialing up the Sinister Six is supposed to take of this problem is a real head scratcher for nearly everyone who doesn’t live in Hollywood.