>While the last two X flicks were critical and financial
>successes, they are actually making less money than Sony's
>Spidey and the MCU.
>
>Why not tap into that revenue stream, especially if you can
>retain the film rights and creative control?

Sony is capitulating b/c they didn't know what to do with Spider-Man moving forward, and they have little else in their coffers that can pull those big tentpole numbers.

Fox is dead-confident in their X-Men slate of films, and they have Avatar 2 & 3 on deck and animated films from BlueSky and DreamWorks as well (those Sony animated films aren't doing nearly as well).