Sony’s Kraven the Hunter Bombs With One of the Worst Marvel Box Office Openings Ever

As a seasoned cinema enthusiast with decades of movie-going under my belt, I must say that Sony’s latest offering, “Kraven the Hunter,” has left me feeling more like a hunter myself – hunting for reasons to enjoy this film. The box office numbers speak volumes, and it’s hard not to notice the stark contrast between its performance and that of other Marvel movies.

The Sony production of “Kraven the Hunter,” featuring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the notorious Spider-Man adversary, had a disappointing start at the box office among Marvel movies. Debuting in third place during the weekend, it managed to gather only $11 million from 3,211 theaters nationwide, marking a low for the Spider-Man Universe franchise. Directed by J.C. Chandor, this R-rated action movie fell short of expectations, initially projected to earn between $13 and $15 million in its opening weekend. The poor reception from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences giving it a ‘C’ grade on CinemaScore, typically uncommon for mainstream superhero films, may have contributed to these underwhelming earnings, even surpassing the disappointing performance of “Madame Web” ($15.3 million).

Kraven made an extra $15 million from 60 international locations, bringing its worldwide opening to $26 million – which is roughly half of the $49.1 million earned by Madame Web in February. The latter movie, focusing on Dakota Johnson’s character Cassandra Webb with psychic abilities, ended its 65-day cinema run with a domestic total of $43.8 million and an international total of $56.4 million, resulting in a global box office of only $100 million.

2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” earned more during its third weekend ($16.5 million) than what “Kraven” made in its debut. Remarkably, even though it was released amid the pandemic, “Carnage” achieved the highest opening for the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU), surpassing 2018’s “Venom” ($80 million), 2024’s “Venom: The Last Dance” ($51 million), 2022’s “Morbius” ($39 million), and “Madame Web” ($15.3 million).

Among Marvel movies, only a handful have underperformed as much as Kraven the Hunter at the box office. The only Marvel adaptations that had lower openings than Kraven’s $11 million are a few notable ones: 2008’s Punisher: War Zone (another R-rated December action film), which made just $4.2 million, 1986’s Howard the Duck with $5 million, and 2020’s The New Mutants with $7 million.

For three weeks straight, Disney’s film “Moana 2” has remained number one at the box office, earning an additional $26.6 million within the U.S., bringing its total domestic earnings to $337 million and a global total of $717 million. Meanwhile, in its fourth week, Universal’s movie “Wicked” took second place with a weekend gross of $22.5 million, adding to its current domestic earnings of $359 million and global revenue of $524.9 million.

The Lion King by Disney and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 by Paramount, which are scheduled to release on December 20.

The film “Kraven” was approved (given the go-ahead) by Sony and TSG Entertainment, who are also involved in producing movies like “Madame Web” and “Venom 3”. Initially budgeted at $90 million, the costs of “Kraven the Hunter” escalated to a whopping $110 million due to two labor strikes in Hollywood in 2023. With a hefty price tag, “Kraven the Hunter” might be the final installment in Sony’s Marvel Universe, although they have plans for future projects such as “Black Cat” and “Sinister Six”.

In this movie titled “Kraven the Hunter,” Aaron Taylor-Johnson takes on the role of Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven, with Ariana DeBose portraying Calypso, Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Kravinoff/the Chameleon, Christopher Abbott as The Foreigner, Russell Crowe as Nikolai Kravinoff, and Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich/the Rhino. (Each actor’s previous work is mentioned for context.)

2024-12-16 00:11

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