A disgruntled group of Marvel fans is planning a protest at Sony headquarters after Sony Pictures, which owns the rights to Spider-Man, and Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, failed to reach a deal to keep the superhero in the MCU.
In a tactic that feels borrowed from Area 51 truthers with a gripe similar to Game of Thrones‘ final season haters, three Spidey fans created a Facebook event to organize simultaneous protests at both Sony Pictures in Culver City, California, and Sony Corporate Offices in New York on Oct.19, 2019.
“We storm Sony Pictures in solidarity dressed in Spider-Man costumes and bring our boy home! This is a peaceful demonstration and violence will not be tolerated.” the description reads, without any self-awareness at how ridiculous it sounds.
Thus far, the event has attracted over 7,000 “Yes” RSVP’s and plenty of mediocre memes.
(Marvel Studios)
The entire endeavor is misguided. Sony and Disney are two of the dwindling number of massive corporations that control the entertainment industry. They exist to make money for their shareholders. The only way fans could potentially make the powers that be change their mind is with a credible threat that their anger might hurt the bottom line.
It’s safe to say that’s unlikely in this case.
Even if every fan who signed up for the protest boycotted Sony forever it would be less than a drop in the ocean for the company. And the more likely scenario is that any fan who loves Spider-Man enough to wear a costume that they own to a protest would not be able to resist consuming new Spider-Man content despite their anger.
Mass protest can work, of course, but only when aimed at democratic institutions that have real reasons not to piss too many people off. And with no shortage of awful things to protest, it would be nice if this energy was redirected into something worthwhile like, say, beefing up antitrust law to prevent conglomerates from taking over the entertainment industry.
This article originally appeared on Fatherly. Follow @FatherlyHQ on Twitter.
