Sony’s Kraven the Hunter Tracking to Open Below Madame Web at the Box Office

As someone who has seen their fair share of ups and downs at the box office, I can’t help but feel a bit of deja vu with Sony Pictures’ latest offering, “Kraven the Hunter“. With its projected opening of $13 million to $15 million, it seems like history might be repeating itself, given the underwhelming performances of “Madame Web” and “Morbius”.

It appears Sony Pictures might be searching for a new successful franchise, as the latest addition to their Spider-Man Universe, “Kraven the Hunter,” may not perform as well as expected. With an estimated opening of around $13 million to $15 million upon its R-rated release on Dec. 13, it could potentially underperform even movies like “Madame Web” and “Morbius.” The latter, featuring Jared Leto, had a disappointing start with $17.3 million in earnings on its opening day and a total of $39 million over the weekend when it was released in 2022.

In a slight shift of phrasing, let me rephrase it for you: The movie “Kraven”, budgeted at around $110 million, will be shown in approximately 3,200 theaters – significantly fewer than the theater counts for “Venom: The Last Dance” (4,131 theaters), “Madame Web” (4,013 theaters), and “Morbius” (4,268 theaters) – as it competes with “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim”, an anime prequel from Warner Bros., which is projected to earn between $6 million and $7 million from around 3,500 theaters, following mixed critical reception.

Sony’s Kraven the Hunter Tracking to Open Below Madame Web at the Box Office

In a continuation of its success, Disney’s upcoming movie “Moana 2” is likely to hold onto the top spot for another three weeks, earning an estimated $30 million or more. Meanwhile, Universal’s film “Wicked”, now in its fourth week, is projected to come in second place with earnings ranging from $18 million to $20 million. If Sony Pictures’ new release “Kraven” debuts in third place, it would be a rare feat for a Marvel-based movie to open at the third position on its first weekend, as previous films like “Venom” (2018), “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” (2021), and “Morbius” opened at No. 1, while “Madame Web” came in second behind Paramount’s Bob Marley biopic “One Love” over Valentine’s Day. If released, “Kraven” would join “Madame Web”, “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” (2019), and “Fantastic Four” (2015) as one of the few Marvel adaptations not to debut at No. 1 in box office sales.

To wrap up Columbia’s 100th anniversary celebration, which has been tainted by costly flops like “Fly Me to the Moon” ($42 million) and “Harold and the Purple Crayon” ($32 million), Sony’s top earner of the year was “Venom 3” with a whopping $472 million, followed closely by the action-comedy “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, which grossed $404 million, and the romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” featuring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, earning $350 million. Despite these films’ diminishing returns compared to earlier successes, they still managed to bring in significant revenue for Sony.

2021 saw me cheering for the success of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” and “Bad Boys 4,” both Sony franchises that surpassed the billion-dollar mark this year. In 2025, I’m excited to see more of my favorite franchises return with “Karate Kid: Legends,” starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as well as “28 Years Later” and the continuation of the story from “I Know What You Did Last Summer.

In the upcoming film “Kraven the Hunter” (from Sony, starring Taylor-Johnson in the role of Kraven), directed by J.C. Chandor (known for “A Most Violent Year” and “Triple Frontier”), we have Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) as Calypso, Fred Hechinger (“Gladiator II”) as Chameleon, Christopher Abbott (“Poor Things”) as the Foreigner, Alessandro Nivola (“The Brutalist”) as the Rhino, and Russell Crowe (“The Pope’s Exorcist”) as Nikolai Kravinoff. Join us in theaters on December 13 to witness this action-packed adventure.

2024-12-11 21:40

Read More