Disappointing box office collection for Marvel

Spider-Man spin-off film ‘Kraven the Hunter’ has had a very disappointing debut at the North American box office. The film, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, grossed just $11 million in its opening weekend. It has one of the worst openings in the Marvel Universe and lags behind even the recently released ‘Madame Web’.

Earnings and audience response

• The R-rated film from director Jesse Chandor faced several delays in production due to the Hollywood strikes.
• Made with a budget of approximately $110 million, the film is co-produced by TSG.
• The film fared poorly internationally and earned only $15 million.
• The film has only a 15 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences have given it a C grade on Cinema Score.

Even weaker performance than ‘Madame Web’

‘Kraven the Hunter’ performed poorly despite releasing in 3,000 theatres. The film lagged behind the $15.3 million opening of ‘Madame Web’, which had collected $43.8 million in its entire run.

The film’s poor performance proves that Sony’s pipeline of Spider-Man spin-off films continues to decline. Although films like ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ had performed well, ‘Kraven the Hunter’ could not maintain that momentum.

Story and characters of the film

Russell Crowe plays Kraven’s gangster father in the film. ‘Kraven the Hunter’ depicts the origin story of an antihero. However, the audience did not feel any newness in the story, direction and characters of the film.

Sony Pictures’ strategy and future plans

Sony Pictures executives are still optimistic that the film can perform well during the holiday season.

However, after the end of the Venom franchise, Sony is now planning to return to the main Spider-Man series. Motion picture group head Tom Rothman now has his sights set on Spider-Man 4 starring Tom Holland, with a release scheduled for July 2026.