Yes, because making a few quick dollars at the expense of the company's reputation is always a wise move.
While Sony's comic book movies are perhaps the nadir of their overall output, it's not like the rest of their releases are prestigious, high quality motion pictures either:
en.wikipedia.org
What exactly
does define Sony Pictures then?
Sony Pictures is the parent company of Columbia...
These Spider-Man adjacent movies have no impact on Sony's reputation or the revenue that Spider-Man movies bring in.
Sony has deals with Netflix and Disney to the tune of 600 million dollars per year. If they keep their expenses at, around, or below 600 million dollars, they know they'll be profitable every year no matter what. Streaming revenue is guaranteed and digital and box office are just a plus.
Venom had a budget of 110-120 million. With the general rule of thumb (2.5x) that means that the movie would need to make 300 million to break even. It made 478.9 million at the box office. That's at least 178.9 million dollars in profit on top of what they make from their streaming deal with Netflix.
Cutting expenses while ensuring they deliver movies to Netflix and Disney ensures their operating income increases.
After inking deals with Netflix and Disney, fans can expect to see popular superhero franchises on Disney platforms and Netflix.
www.forbes.com
3 billion dollar 5 year deal
You can criticize their model all you want, but one it works, and two it has nothing to do with PlayStation Productions, with the caveat that PlayStation Productions can be allocated to as part of that 600 million dollar annual budget.
The relationship between PlayStation Productions and Sony Pictures is a somewhat unique one though similar to Marvel Entertainment and Disney.
Sony Pictures wants IP to make movies to feed the box office and streaming. They would normally use the profits to buy/license more IP, but with PlayStation Productions, they can get a steady stream of existing IP to make movies out of. Even if these movies/tv shows aren't massive successes they still
A) fulfill the streaming agreements
B) act as massive commercials for games potentially turning games that aren't successes into success which we'll see with Until Dawn
Sony is in a win-win situation with their pipeline of IP to TV/Movies. That pipeline will allow them to take bigger swings in gaming if there is pay off.
Microsoft doesn't have that situation. They can decide to fund, produce, and distribute their own stuff, but they're not about to do that. It's entirely too risky and costly. Sony has guaranteed money backing all their projects whether they succeed or fail.
Until Dawn could be a hit horror franchise and return 100s of millions of dollars per entry and spawn a multitude of new games or it could fall flat on its face. It doesn't matter at the end of the day. The remake wouldn't have cost Sony much money and the movie won't either.
Sony also knows that they still have big money coming down the pipeline with Spider-Man 4, Jumanji 3, and Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Of all the movie studios, Sony probably has the least risk because they're not directly involved in streaming, for which all these studios are bleeding money.