Audience attitudes towards Sony adapting Marvel Comics stories have always been a mixed bag, but nothing compared to what we are seeing in 2024. Audiences thought they hit bottom in February after “Madame Web” opened at $15.3 million on a budget of $80 million. But the company fell even further this weekend with “Kraven the Hunter.”
“Kraven the Hunter”
Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as one of Spider-Man’s notorious foes, expectations for “Kraven the Hunter,” weren’t high, but no one expected an $11 million opening weekend across 3,211 theaters levels of bad. It is now the worst debut for Sony’s Universe of Marvel characters, beating out “Madame Web” by several million. To put these numbers into context, the movie was greenlit with a budget of $90 million. This budget ballooned to $110 million after several delays.
We all know low box office numbers don’t always mean a movie is bad. Plenty of projects don’t find their audiences until long after they release. But this time, critics have sensed blood in the water, giving “Kraven the Hunter” an abysmal 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes. (Audiences are being slightly more forgiving with 73% from extremely mixed reviews.)
Sony’s History With Marvel Movies
This is Sony’s third go at making a film based on a Spider-Man adjacent character. The Tom Hardy-led “Venom” franchise is by far the most successful attempt. Its third installment, “Venom: The Last Dance” opened in October at $51 million, on a $120 million budget. This is respectable despite being projected for a $65 million opening and making less than its two predecessors.
Then there was 2022’s “Morbius,” starring Jared Leto, which raked in $74 million on its first opening weekend. Soon after the “It’s Morbin’ Time” meme went viral making the film a running joke. This increased interest convinced Sony that audiences needed more so the company brought it back into theaters, where it grossed a baffling $300,000 on its second opening weekend. These numbers sealed “Morbius”’s place in history as the rare film that flopped twice. (Even though Sony is adamant they actually ‘made money’ on the film.)
“As the superhero genre has declined over the last five years, ‘Morbius,’ ‘Madame Web’ and ‘Kraven’ have led the race to the bottom,” David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, said. “Kraven’s budget was downsized according to the realities of the market, but it’s still too high for this kind of result.”
What Could’ve Been Done to Make These Better Movies?
How about….including Spider-Man in ANY of these films that were supposedly a build-up to an eventual Sinister Six film? That was supposed to be the plan- tell the individual stories of these villains, and have them team up to fight the Sony and Marvel Studios co-opted character. Well, Sony CHOSE not to do that, opting to leave ol’ Web-Head out of these films completely. No telling if the addition of a beloved character would’ve make anything BETTER, but, it couldn’t have made things worse.
“Kraven the Hunter” is currently in theaters nationwide. You can check out the trailer below:
