It’s a different studio, but Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks like it will be following in the footsteps of its Marvel bretheren. Iron Man remains the only current Marvel film franchise to have received numerical sequels; Thor 2 became Thor: The Dark World and Captain America 2 became Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks poised to become Amazing Spider-Man: The Price of Power or something quite similar.
According to a ComicBookMovie.com source, market tests were put in the field for a number of titles, including the aforementioned The Price of Power and Amazing Spider-Man: With Great Power. With Electro as the central villain of the film, the theme seems to be quite clear. And while neither is quite offensively on the nose, they both seem like an attempt to simply avoid numerals rather than add something meaningful to the title. We know that Peter Perker struggles with how to use his Spider-Man powers while maintaining a normal life. The “with great power comes great responsibility” line wasn’t even uttered in this most recent Spidey film.
Ultimately this strikes us most as exactly what the test was for: a marketing strategy. #WithGreatPower works a lot better for Twitter than #AmazingSpiderMan2, and with the arguably higher-profile X-Men: Days of Future Past releasing just three weeks after Amazing 2 (as well as Godzilla the week before that), there’s definitely both a release window it needs to hit hard and a public awareness fight it’s going to need to stay relevant in. Don’t forget that there are two very direct sequels planned, with some footage already shot, and their budgets may be somewhat contingent on the success of this film.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (or whatever its final title turns out to be) hits U.S. theaters Friday, May 2, 2014.