Sony Pictures
It was a significant — if disappointing — weekend at the box office. Warner Bros. released a new "Lord of the Rings" movie in the form of the animated "The War of the Rohirrim," which bombed with less than $5 million. Worse still was what happened to Sony Pictures and the studio's latest Marvel Comics adaptation, "Kraven the Hunter." Centered on the "Spider-Man" villain of the same name, it now holds the distinction of earning one of the worst opening weekends ever for a Marvel movie and is going to go down as one of the biggest bombs of the year.
Director J.C. Chandor's "Kraven the Hunter" opened to an estimated $11 million domestically, placing at number three on the charts behind Disney's "Moana 2" ($26.6 million) and "Wicked" ($22.5 million), both of which rank amongst the highest-grossing movies of the year. Overseas audiences aren't going to bail Sony out here either; the R-rated comic book film took in just $15 million internationally. A $26 million global start for a movie with a $110 million budget — before marketing — is nothing shy of a disaster. Mind you, "Kraven" had an even worse opening than Sony's "Madame Web," which stumbled out the gate with a $15.3 million debut earlier this year.
So, what went wrong here? How did Sony fumble yet another Marvel movie so badly? Who, or what, is to blame for this flop of epic proportions? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "Kraven the Hunter" suffered a disastrous start to its theatrical run. Let's get into it.
The reviews for Kraven the Hunter were abysmal
Sony Pictures
The biggest problem with "Kraven the Hunter" is that it's not a good movie. Normally, it's best not to say a movie is good or not good, as it's generally a matter of opinion. That said, in this case, the distaste for this particular "Spider-Man" spin-off is near universal. As of this writing, the film holds an abysmal 15% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yes, the audience rating is 73%, but that hardly matters when so few people have seen the film. A so-so audience reaction doesn't get you anywhere.
/Film's Witney Seibold called "Kraven" a "stupid but entertaining" movie in his 5 out of 10 review. That, unfortunately, was about as close as praise as one is likely to find for this movie, outside of the very few critics who dissented from the common opinion. For Sony, the best it can hope for is that audiences check this one out once it hits streaming and VOD out of morbid curiosity. For the moment, this isn't a "Venom" situation where critics don't like it but audiences love it, allowing it to thrive theatrically.
Audiences had plenty of better options to choose from
Sony Pictures
One of the biggest problems for "Kraven," when coupled with the terrible critical reception, is that audiences had quite a few other options to choose from. For anyone who was simply committed to going to the movies over the weekend, they didn't have to settle for this. If one wanted to see an R-rated, action-heavy blockbuster, they could simply go watch "Gladiator II" instead. To that end, they could have even seen "Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim."
Aside from that, "Moana 2" and "Wicked," both movies that have performed very well with audiences, continued to crush it over the weekend. Why watch something that runs the risk of disappointing when people have been singing the praises of those crowd-pleasers for weeks now? This is to say nothing of "Red One" or the shockingly successful re-release of Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar." The point is that timing wasn't on Sony's side for this one either.
The budget for Kraven the Hunter didn't do it any favors
Sony Pictures
Not that a lower budget would have necessarily increased the take for "Kraven the Hunter," but it sure as hell doesn't help matters any that Sony spent $110 million to make this R-rated critical disaster. Granted, some of that had to do with last year's SAG and WGA strike delays, which increased the budget by $20 million. Even so, at $90 million, this still would've been a catastrophe.
Yes, Sony has a co-producer here in the form of TSG Entertainment, so it won't have to absorb the total blow. All that means for now is that two companies still suffer, rather than one, they just suffer slightly less. It's also worth remembering that 2022's "Morbius," despite being a sizable flop at the box office, had a mere $75 million budget. That allowed Sony to mitigate risk. When one gets into that $100 million or more range, the risk is far greater and a significant, global audience is needed. Come what may for the future of this franchise, Sony would do well to find a way to bring these budgets down unless Spider-Man is actually in the film.
Most people don't know who Kraven the Hunter is
Sony Pictures
Another thing worth pointing out is that no studio has managed to successfully launch a new superhero property not based on a character (or characters) already established on the big screen in years. The closest we've come is "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" but, with all due respect, until a sequel arrives, that's a one-and-done. Meanwhile, the likes of "Eternals," "Blue Beetle," "Black Adam," and "Bloodshot," among others, have failed to generate new solo franchises. "Kraven the Hunter" now joins that ever-growing list.
A big part of the problem is that nobody outside of hardcore comic book readers knows who Kraven is. He's associated with one of the most classic "Spider-Man" stories, "Kraven's Last Hunt," but that only goes so far, especially since this isn't an adaptation of that particular storyline. It should also be noted that relatively unknown heroes can still be at the center of a big hit. 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy" was a huge success for Marvel Studios despite the fact that those characters were total unknowns. The key difference? James Gunn's film was met with a great deal of praise. This only works with really good movies. Mediocrity can't get the job done when a big name isn't involved.
People have had enough of Sony's sub-par comic book movies
Sony Pictures
Audiences are wiser than studios often seem to give them credit for. Are the majority of moviegoers steeped in the trenches of the Marvel universe, paying attention to the bigger picture? No. Most of them don't really understand the difference between these Sony productions and Disney's MCU productions. It's just another superhero movie to them. That said, they are at least observant enough to connect some dots. Hardcore fans know that Sony has been dropping the ball with these spin-offs for years now. General audiences were burned by both "Morbius" and "Madame Web." In both cases, "Kraven" wasn't going to get any benefit of the doubt.
The fact of the matter is that ticket buyers had been tricked twice already. The "Venom" trilogy truly was the exception to the rule here. The results for "Madame Web" were bad enough to kill Sony's further "Spider-Man" spin-off plans. This now serves as the final nail in the coffin. It's gone from bad to worse. Sony absolutely must go back to the drawing board and regroup. Whether that means only making Marvel movies focused specifically on Spider-Man or taking a completely different approach to these spin-offs, this experiment is good and truly over.
"Kraven the Hunter" is now playing in theaters.
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