Kraven the Hunter ends Sony’s Spider-Man Universe with abysmal record

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven the HunterSony Pictures

Kraven the Hunter is reportedly the final movie in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, and going by its reviews, it’s continued the franchise’s unfortunate streak of stinkers.

The SSU was a bizarre idea from the outset: a series of movies dedicated to Spider-Man villains, but none of them actually feature the wall-crawler (Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s post-credits scene notwithstanding).

The Venom movies are its only financial successes (The Last Dance is one of the highest-grossing movies of the year), but the rest have flopped hard at the box office; for example, Madame Web grossed just over $100 million against… a $100 million budget.

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Now, with Kraven the Hunter arriving in cinemas this weekend and seemingly bringing Sony’s ill-endeavored cinematic universe to a close, it’ll end with a regrettable record.

All of Sony’s Spider-Man spinoffs have bad Rotten Tomatoes scores

Venom, Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the HunterSony Pictures

With Kraven the Hunter, it’s official: Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is definitely ‘rotten.’ Every movie in the series is rated lower than 60%, as we’ve listed below:

  • Venom (2018) – 30%
  • Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) – 58%
  • Morbius (2022) – 15%
  • Madame Web (2024) – 11%
  • Venom: The Last Dance (2024) – 41%
  • Kraven the Hunter (2024) – 15%

In our two-star review of Kraven the Hunter, we said it’s “the hilariously underwhelming funeral we all knew was coming… punters are in for the most baffling experience of the year.”

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Kraven is arriving at a competitive time in cinemas. It’s going up against Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim this weekend, but it’ll have to contend with three other titles: Wicked, Moana 2, and Interstellar, the latter of which made more money than any other film in the US last weekend.

It’s projected to make $15 million in its opening weekend, which would be the lowest-grossing start to any theatrical run in the SSU. It reportedly cost close to $110 million to produce, so it has a long way to go before it’s profitable.

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This also comes off the back of a report by The Wrap that claimed the SSU is effectively done after Kraven, with Sony now prioritizing Spider-Man 4 and a handful of other projects (like the Spider-Man Noir TV series).

“They’ve developed what they want to develop for now. It’s really about the next Spider-Man film,” an agent told the outlet.

In the meantime, read our list of the best superhero movies ever made and check out our ranking of the best movies of 2024.

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