So this is apparently where we are now. Yahoo is reporting that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is already the subject of re-release plans at Sony, and this one would come with new footage attached.

I get it. The movie's been a monster. At some point you're not marketing a movie anymore, you're maintaining an event, and events need fresh reasons for people to show up.

But there's a version of this that starts to feel like the streaming-era collector's edition problem, where the thing you bought at launch is somehow incomplete three months later. People will absolutely pay again for the communal experience of a movie they've already seen, so the math here isn't mysterious. New footage is the excuse. The big screen with a crowd is the actual product.

The report doesn't specify what the new footage would be, how much of it there'd be, or when this re-release would land. My guess, and it's only a guess, is they're eyeing either the holiday corridor or a victory-lap slot timed to some anniversary of the opening. Studios love a nice round number.

If they do this right, it's a deleted-scene reel with a theatrical budget, and some of the best re-releases in recent memory have been exactly that. If they do it lazy, it's four minutes of b-roll and a post-credits stinger that was held back on purpose. You can usually tell the difference within a week of the announcement, so I'll be watching what they actually promise.

What I'll also be watching, with slightly gritted teeth, is whether this becomes the new normal. If it works, every studio with a hit is going to hold something back for the second run, and the first-run audience, the people who showed up opening weekend, gets the slightly-less-complete version of the movie.

Did you see it opening weekend? If you did, the question is whether Tom Holland and whatever they shot is worth a second trip. Ask me again when they announce what's actually in the footage.