Kraven the Hunter has made box office history for a very bad reason after setting an unwanted record.
Sony’s Marvel spin-off is a standalone story focused on villains from the Spider-Man comics, and follows three Venom films and Morbius. Sony owns the rights to these characters but, in 2019, renegotiated the deal to share them with Disney, opening it up for possible appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe, was shot in 2022, but had its release pushed back due to the Hollywood strikes that took place from July to November 2023.
While Sony gave the film a promotional push in recent weeks, it seems the film’s dreadful reviews – including a one-star pan from The Independent, who called it “abysmal” – affected cinemagoers’ desire to watch it: Kraven the Hunter had the worst opening weekend of any Sony-produced Marvel film.
The film pulled in just $11m (£8.7m) in the US and $15m (£11.8m) globally, earning it overall takings of $26m (£20.5m) – an even more meagre amount when considering it cost between $110-$150m (£86.9m-£118.5m). As of 22 December, the film had made just $30.2m (£24m).
These global takings sit behind the equally-as-maligned Morbius, starring Jared Leto, which took $39m. Madame Web was another Spider-Man spin-off released by Sony and, while despised by the critics, it amassed half of its budget back in the opening weekend alone, with takings of $49.1m.
Sony did enjoy big success with the Venom franchise, which became a sleeper hit when it launched in 2018.
The first Venom made $856.1m (£676.2m) with 2021 sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage amassing $506.8m (£400.3m).
Meanwhile, the third and final entry in the series, Venom: The Last Dance, has made $475.5m (£375.6m) since being released earlier this year. At the time of writing, this makes it the ninth highest-grossing film of the year.
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At the time of writing, the biggest films of the year are Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine, both of which made more than $1bn.
Despicable Me 4 is in third place with Moana 2 becoming the year’s fourth highest-grossing film after just four weeks of release. This pushed Dune: Part 2 pushed into fifth place.
Rounding out the top 10 are Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kung Fu Panda 4, Wicked and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
