An X user noticed some notably outdated Spider-Man promotional material on their recent visit to their local post office.
X user @_bismack_ came across these dated The Amazing Spider-Man 2 flat rate priority boxes at their local mail box, sparking some curiosity as to how and why the US Postal Service (USPS) is still utilizing branded collateral for a film that’s over 10 years old.
The two Amazing Spider-Man films (released in 2012 and 2014) were Sony Pictures’ first attempt to reboot Spider-Man after Sam Raimi’s original trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. Directed by Marc Webb, the series starred Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker with a tone that leaned more contemporary and emotionally grounded than the Raimi films, emphasizing Peter’s relationships and social dynamics within his family and school friends.
Both the Maguire and Garfield versions of Spider-Man appeared in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third film in Marvel Studios’ reboot of the franchise starring Tom Holland as the titular webslinger. A fourth film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is slated for a 2026 release, although production was halted in September 2025 to allow Holland to recover from a concussion.
The character has also appeared in other Marvel films including the Avengers series, and spin-off movies from Sony such as the critically-acclaimed animated Spider-Verse series.
So what’s a USPS flat rate box doing in 2026 with Amazing Spider-Man 2 branding?
Well, as Instagram user Collect described in citing the original post from @_bismack_:
A 12-year-old Spider-Man movie is still being advertised by the U.S. Postal Service 😅
In 2014, as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 arrived in theaters, USPS released official Priority Mail boxes covered in movie branding. It was part of a wave of wide reaching promotional tie ins that put blockbuster movies on everything from cereal boxes to shipping supplies.
Now in 2026, some local post offices still have those boxes in circulation. They were produced in massive quantities at a time when customers were shifting to ordering Priority packaging online, allowing the branded boxes to quietly linger more than a decade after the movie left theaters.
As Collect notes, the simplest and most likely explanation is that these Spider-Man branded materials were likely produced in massive quantities at the time of the marketing efforts for the film. Regardless of the superhero branding and film-specific marketing effort, the flat rate boxes produced back in 2014 are largely unchanged from the same unaffiliated flat rate boxes of 2026.
So it seems likely that this particular post office or nearby mail distribution and sorting centers simply had a surplus of these old materials and figured it would be better to stock those for customers than to wait for a restock of generic pieces.
Along those lines, it is very unlikely that Disney or Sony Pictures – who produced and distributed the Amazing Spider-Man films – had any say in the redistribution of these unused USPS materials.
While it’s apparent that some old items from the film’s marketing campaign may be found in the wild, collectors can be found on eBay and similar sites attempting to resell the same boxes for far above their flat rate price, along with associated items USPS Spider-Man flyers.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had an extensive marketing effort attached to the film, which included McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, tie-in comics and video games, viral marketing efforts and more. USPS leveraged their opportunity with the film extensively, even producing an original TV spot which you can view below:
For an even more in-depth look into the campaign and other Amazing Spider-Man 2 collateral, you can check out the breakdown of the marketing campaign’s results here:
Have you encountered any old Spider-Man, Marvel, or Disney marketing pieces or paraphernalia in 2026? Share your quirky or nostalgic finds with us on social media!
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