Kraven the Hunter failed to live up to expectations as it experienced a dramatic drop at the box office following its disappointing opening weekend marking a significant downturn for the most recent entry in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. Aaron Taylor-Johnson portrayed Kraven as an antihero in this sixth film in Sony's SSU however the movie performed poorly against Wicked and Moana 2 which maintained strong positions for second week numbers despite the high profile releases in that timeframe.
'Kraven the Hunter's' Severe Box Office Decline Sets a Troubling Trend with Spider-Man Spinoffs in 2024
Kraven the Hunter declined by 72% in the second weekend ranking 7th with only 3.1 million dollars for a three day weekend performance as shown by figures published at Deadline. This steep fall surpasses Madame Web's 61% drop and even Morbius’ 62% dip during the comparable period of second weekend movie showings. In just ten days of its initial release, Kraven the Hunter has made a paltry 17.4 million dollars domestically which was less than 28 million generated by Madame Web in the same amount of time making it a truly troubled opening of all films tied to the spiderman characters by the Sony studios in 2024.
Financial Failure: 'Kraven the Hunter' Likely to Become the Lowest-Grossing Spider-Man Film to Date
Kraven the Hunter with a meager 17.4 million dollars domestic and 42.8 million dollars global performance has very little chances of covering its 130 million budget. Kraven the Hunter will become the worst performing movie based on a Spider-Man character dropping below the earlier performances by Madame Web released earlier in the same year demonstrating the difficulty in audience interest. Even if some audiences might watch “bad movies” to experience those strange aspects for entertainment Kraven the Hunter movie fails to capture the viewer interest with poor showings all across the country which shows a fundamental problem with the studio.
The 2024 Superhero Movie Disappointments at Box Office Excluding "Deadpool and Wolverine"
2024 proved to be an extremely tough year for movies based on comic books except for Deadpool & Wolverine. Movies such as Venom: The Last Dance Joker: Folie à Deux plus Madame Web all failed to meet studio expectations at the box office. The rate of box office failure for Kraven the Hunter makes it a serious candidate for being one of the lowest grossing comic book film of all of 2024 falling below Joker: Folie à Deux domestic performance of only 58 million dollars a total it is unlikely to meet.
Missed Opportunity: 'Kraven the Hunter' Failed to Utilize the Character's Comic Legacy in Marvel's Story Universe
While superhero genre should see better performances by studios in the future it also serves as a harsh lesson that Spider-Man's villains were previously targeted by talented directors Sam Raimi Marc Webb Jon Watts and Ryan Coogler that never really materialized for the Spider-Man or Black Panther films. Had Kraven the Hunter ever been presented in other existing films the character might have resonated with movie fans due to increased exposure from well loved directors in other Marvel film universes. Kraven is now associated with a very unpopular underperforming film when other adaptations in other Marvel series would have produced more positive associations from the popular source material within the comic series.
'Kraven the Hunter' Blends Bad Scripting and Bland Direction within the Spider-Man Universe
Kraven the Hunter Sony's fourth film in Spider-Man Universe presents a solo anti-hero journey of Sergei Kravinoff portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. This R rated film directed by J.C Chandor with casting including Ariana DeBose Russell Crowe and Fred Hechinger focuses on Kraven’s strained family interactions along with very bad dialogue choices as an additional critique by movie fans who attended. Eyewitness News a national news outlet is giving very critical reviews of Kraven the Hunter saying it blends all of Sony’s bad habits in one large production.
Poor character development and inconsistent plotting with dialogue that leaves many critics bewildered show very poor planning in production and creative story direction choices. The film blends action sequences without any unique approach that would normally be seen in a superhero movie as well as poor utilization of its R rating with little that creates compelling interest for viewers. Eyewitness News reviewers described Kraven the Hunter as a blandly bad forgettable film that missed what made other Sony marvel films even uniquely enjoyable while still missing the mark for most average viewers.
Opening Weekend Sales Plunge for 'Kraven the Hunter' Behind 'Moana 2', and 'Wicked'
Kraven the Hunter had a very poor debut in North America only taking 11 million dollars while Madame Web also a previous Spiderman spin off did better during its own debut. This was one of the worst Marvel related debuts in the past decade. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim also released during the same time made only 4.6 million on a 30 million dollar budget where Peter Jackson is working with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens for future films. Moana 2 held on to number one in box office with a total 717 million dollars. The very popular film Wicked has generated more than 359 million in its US showings and now surpassed 500 million worldwide.
Gladiator II performed decently as it made 7.8 million domestically while Spider-Man spin off has joined Madame Web and Morbius as huge missteps for a potential Sony franchise expansion . Venom is the only significant exception to the failing list. Kraven The Hunter director J.C. Chandor had significant delays that included the Hollywood strikes during its production however movie experts say delays would not account for low performance as movie studio took three years from the beginning stages till theater showing of movie. A 110 million dollar production budget included co-financing from TSG, generating a low 15% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and C score by CinemaScore showcasing a poor result for overall viewer interest and future interest in similar spin off titles by studio. Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore suggests audiences must fully understand and appreciate the source material to support a franchise title a criteria this movie seems to have missed by every definition.
Home Stretch for the 2024 Box Office: A Look Ahead With "Sonic" and "Mufasa" in the Coming weeks
Awards films “September 5” by Paramount “Nickel Boys” by Amazon MGM and Orion made initial limited showings during this reporting period prior to bigger releases nationally. Big films on the way are Mufasa and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 that are slated to arrive soon to close out the 2024 period in movie releases along with a multitude of smaller independent titles for the holidays. The box office is seeing considerable recovery from a 28% loss since June down to 4.8 % at current as per Comscore. Comscore listed top ten films during the reporting period with Moana 2 Wicked plus Kraven the Hunter in top three. The list contained seven additional movies demonstrating movie popularity. These ten film sales were used to show trends across major studios plus give overview of entertainment interests throughout the public audience in this time.