‘Kraven the Hunter’ bombs with worst start for Sony’s Marvel film

Kraven may be the world’s greatest hunter, but the comic book villain couldn’t manage the rise to the top of the box office charts.

Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter,” a superhero spinoff starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Spider-Man’s infamous nemesis, launched amid already low expectations, at No. 3 with $11 million from 3,211 theaters. It landed the worst debut for Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters behind February’s misfire “Madame Web” ($15.3 million), as well as some of the franchise’s lowest ratings ever from critics and audiences with a tragic 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and a “C” grade on CinemaScore. That kind of reception signals that, barring a holiday miracle, “Kraven” won’t be returning for the rest of December.

At the international box office, “Kraven the Hunter” fared even worse, fourth among Hollywood offerings, with $15 million from 21,500 screens in 60 markets.

“Kraven the Hunter” is Sony’s third Spider-Man-adjacent adaptation of the year, following October’s “Venom: The Last Dance.” The alien symbiote trilogy, led by Tom Hardy, has proven to be critically and commercially successful, although the third and final film did not live up to the heights of its predecessors. Otherwise, Sony has yet to produce a comic book hit from its offshoots led by tertiary Spider-Man villains. The studio also stumbled in 2022 with “Morbius,” a vampire-inspired thriller starring Jared Leto as the fanged villain — another of Peter Parker’s infamous enemies. Those ambitions began at a time when superheroes were all the rage at the box office, but ticket sales for too many recent comic book tentpoles have been decidedly flat.

The long-delayed “The Collar” cost upwards of $110 million to produce (it was greenlit for $90 million but sped up after last year’s writer and actor strikes), though it was co-financed by TSG. Directed by JC Chandor, the R-rated film explores the origins of Sergei Kravinoff, the comic book character’s alter ego, including his rocky relationship with his crime lord father (Russell Crowe) and his quest to become the greatest hunter.

“As the superhero genre has declined over the past five years, ‘Morbius,’ ‘Madame Web,’ and ‘Kraven’ have led the race to the bottom,” said David A. Gross, who runs film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “The claim’s budget was reduced according to market realities, but it is still too high for this kind of performance.”

Also this weekend, the Warner Bros. anime fantasy film “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” stumbled in fifth place with $4.6 million from 2,602 theaters in its opening weekend. It has a modest budget of $30 million, so any loss during its theatrical run won’t be devastating to the studio. Plus, box office riches weren’t necessarily the driving force behind “War of the Rohirrim,” based on JRR Tolkien characters and set 183 years before the events of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy that got the green light. The animated film was developed and fast-tracked to ensure New Line Cinema didn’t lose the film rights to Tolkien’s novels, while Jackson and the teams behind the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies worked on two new live-action films for 2026 and beyond . The first of these films, tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, will be directed by and star Andy Serkis.

“War of the Rohirrim,” which has mixed reviews and a tepid “B” on CinemaScore, faltered last weekend in its international box office debut with just $2 million from 31 territories. It will expand to 42 additional offshore markets over the weekend.

Despite the two newcomers, Disney’s “Moana 2” retained the No. 1 on the domestic box office charts for the third weekend in a row with $26.6 million from 4,000 theaters. Originally commissioned for streaming, the Polynesian animated adventure has become a theatrical success with $337.5 million in North America and $717 million globally so far. It is already the fifth highest grossing film of the year domestically and the fourth biggest global release.

Universal’s “Wicked” adaptation grossed more than double that of “The Collar,” even though the big musical has already been in theaters for a month. “Wicked” remained in second place with a dazzling $22.5 million from 3,689 venues in its fourth weekend of release. The film, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, has generated $359 million domestically and more than $524 million worldwide to date. It is the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in domestic box office history, ahead of 1978’s “Grease” ($188.62 million), as well as the second-highest worldwide stage-to-screen revival after 2008’s “Mamma Mia” ($611 million) .

Paramount’s “Gladiator II” landed at No. 3 with $7.8 million in its fourth picture. The sequel to Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning 2000 epic “Gladiator” has earned $145.9 million in North America and more than $398.5 million globally.

Heading into the coveted holiday frame, total box office revenue is 4.8% after 2023 and 23% after 2019, according to Comscore. “Moana 2” and “Glicked” (the portmanteau of the two films with two release dates and spiritual sequel to “Barbenheimer”) will continue to rule multiplexes until Christmas time, when Disney’s “Lion King” prequel “Mufasa,” Paramount’s ” Sonic the Hedgehog 3″ and A24’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” all open on December 20. A few days later, Focus Features’ “Nosferatu” remake and Searchlight’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown, starring Timothee Chalamet, land on Dec. 25 to close out the year.

Until then, it will be Moana, Glinda and Elphaba all the time.