Sony has been struggling with its superhero universe for years now. Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) has seen a lot of flops over time, and it looks like its latest installment, Kraven the Hunter, is not going to help in any way.
The movie stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven, and the movie promises to be a standalone story of Spider-Man’s famous villain. However, the film has suffered a fate much worse than Madame Web.
Kraven the Hunter makes Madame Web look better with its box office numbers
Kraven the Hunter is the sixth installment in Sony’s infamous Spider-Man spin-off universe. The universe has previously seen movies like Morbius, the Venom trilogy, and the least rated of them all, Madame Web.
Madame Web has received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 11% from critics and 55% from the audience, which puts it among the lowest-rated superhero movies in general. The film managed to earn just over $100 million globally in its entire theatrical run (via Box Office Mojo).
Now, just when Sony thought it couldn’t get any worse than this, Kraven the Hunter seems to shatter all hopes with its numbers. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie has made $2 million from its Thursday previews, which is even less than Madame Web, which made $2.2 million in its previews.
Moreover, as per Variety, Kraven the Hunter might somehow manage to earn $12 million to $13 million by the weekend, whereas Madame Web had a domestic opening of $15.3 million. As far as ratings are concerned, the Aaron Taylor-Johnson starrer movie is currently rated 14% by the critics and 71% by the audience on Rotten Tomatoes.
Kraven the Hunter was made within a production budget of $110 million, and it can be assumed that the same amount was spent on its marketing. Considering this, the movie has to earn at least $220 million to even out the overall expenses. However, judging by Madame Web‘s overall theatrical collections and Kraven the Hunter‘s ongoing performance, it seems a very far cry.
Reasons for Kraven the Hunter‘s poor reception
Kraven the Hunter continues the struggle of Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off universe, and the biggest reason for this is the absence of its title character, Spider-Man. Characters like Kraven, Morbius, and Madame Web get their identity from Spidey, and without him, fans are least interested to know their personal story.
Apart from this, critics have criticized the movie’s graphics and CGI aspects. Tom Jorgensen from IGN wrote, “A transformation illustrated with a cheap-looking vision quest full of irrelevant runes superimposed over stock nature footage.”
Robert Daniels from The New York Times pointed out the disturbing Russian accent of the actors, stating, “Dodgy one-liners delivered by a cast who seem to be practicing their worst Russian accents.” Linda Marric from The Sun praised some action sequences but claims they were overshadowed by “cringeworthy dialogue and a disjointed plot.”
The movie’s plot is also felt to be thoroughly inconsistent. Moreover, it completely changed the character’s origin and traditional backstory. In the comics, he is a Spider-Man villain who goes after him just for the pure pleasure of the game of hunting.
However, Sony’s Kraven hunts poachers to protect animals. This wide difference was enough to upset many Marvel fans. According to The Wrap, Sony has no plans to make any other live-action movie for Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off universe after Kraven the Hunter, and with its expected performance, it seems like this might be the end of SSU.
Kraven the Hunter is now running in theaters.
Madame Web is available to stream on Netflix.
Frequently asked questions
How did Kraven the Hunter’s box office compare to Madame Web’s?
Kraven the Hunter earned roughly $2 million from its Thursday previews, just under Madame Web’s $2.2 million, and was tracking for an opening weekend of about $12-13 million. For context, Madame Web had posted a domestic opening of around $15.3 million. On those measures Kraven set a new low for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which is the ‘humiliating record’ the headline points to; its full theatrical run ultimately landed it among the lowest-grossing comic-book films.
Who stars in Kraven the Hunter and which character does he play?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as Sergei Kravinoff, also known as Kraven, in a standalone villain origin story set within Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. The film focuses on Kraven’s origins rather than pitting him against Spider-Man, a choice the article notes weakened the character’s draw since Spidey himself does not appear.
Why did Kraven the Hunter underperform, according to the article?
The article cites weak reviews (a low critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes against a more favorable audience score) and creative choices that diverged from the comics, such as reworking Kraven’s motivation toward hunting poachers rather than hunting for sport. It also points to the absence of Spider-Man reducing the villain’s appeal, and notes that the reported $110 million production budget made the soft opening especially costly. Sony was reported to have no further live-action films planned for the universe.
