‘Kraven the Hunter’ Bombs With $11M Opening
Sony’s first R-rated comic book movie Kraven the Hunter bombed in its domestic box office debut, hunting down only $11 million to come in third behind Thanksgiving blockbusters Moana 2 and Wicked.
Kraven supplanted Madame Web to rank as the worst start ever for a Sony-produced Marvel comic book movie (the studio has rights to the Spider-Man universe), and one of the worst for any pic based on a Marvel character, not adjusted for inflation.
Reviewers ravaged the film, while audiences slapped it with a C CinemaScore.
Kraven, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular antihero, wasn’t cheap, costing $110 million to make instead of an intended $90 million because of pandemic and strike-related delays. Its release date was also pushed several times. Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger and Alessandro Nivola co-star in J.C. Chandor’s action-thriller about the vigilante son of a Russian gangster who has incredible strength.
Kraven is more bad news for Sony following Madame Web as it tries to mine the hundreds of Spider-Man-related characters it has the rights to. Sony insiders have marketed the film as an R-rated action pic akin to such titles as John Wick, versus a comic book movie.
The weekend’s other new major studio release, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is looking at a fifth or sixth place with around $5 million. The Warner Bros. and New Line animated feature takes place far before the events of Lord of the Rings. The movie earned a B CinemaScore.
Elsewhere, Moana 2 and Wicked continued to save the day and top the domestic chart.
Disney Animation’s Moana sequel sped past the $700 million mark globally as it heads for the $1 billion mark. Domestically, it stayed number one in its third weekend with $26.6 million for a domestic tally of $337.5 million and north of $717 globally.
Wicked sang past the $500 million mark in worldwide ticket sales in its fourth weekend, including earning another $22.5 million domestically
Gladiator II is also helping, with overall weekend revenue up 16 percent over the same frame last year.
Dec. 15, 8 a.m. Updated with domestic and global numbers.
More to come.
This story was originally published Dec. 14 at 11:18 a.m.
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