The latest addition to the Marvel universe, “Kraven the Hunter,” has unfortunately had a disastrous start in North American theaters this weekend. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the movie earned only $11 million according to studio estimates, making it one of the worst openings for a Marvel-adjacent property. Its box office take was even less than that of the film “Madame Web.”
The weekend’s other major release, Warner Bros.’ animated “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” fared slightly better, earning $4.6 million. However, this was still a disappointing result for a movie that was made with a budget of about $30 million. This film is set 183 years before the events of “The Lord of the Rings” films and was fast-tracked to ensure that New Line did not lose the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novels. Fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating future live-action films, but this setback may cause some concern.
Meanwhile, the top of the box office charts once again belonged to “Moana 2” and “Wicked.” “Moana 2” added $26.6 million to its domestic total in its third weekend and an impressive $57.2 million internationally, bringing its global tally to an impressive $717 million. It has now surpassed “Dune: Part Two” to become the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. “Wicked,” which is in its fourth weekend, brought in another $22.5 million to take second place. The Universal musical has now made over $359 million domestically and over $500 million worldwide.
“Gladiator II” also continued to perform well, earning $7.8 million in its fourth week and bringing its domestic total to $145.9 million. This is a strong result for the highly anticipated sequel, which has been receiving positive reviews from both audiences and critics.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for “Kraven the Hunter,” which is the latest misfire from Sony in its attempts to create successful spin-off franchises from the Spider-Man universe. Alongside “Madame Web” and “Morbius,” “Kraven” failed to connect with audiences and has received negative reviews. The one exception to this trend has been the “Venom” trilogy, which has earned an impressive $1.8 billion worldwide.
Directed by J.C. Chandor, “Kraven the Hunter” faced several delays, partly due to the Hollywood strikes. It was shot nearly three years ago and was originally slated to hit theaters in January 2023. The film reportedly cost $110 million to produce and was co-financed by TSG. While it did manage to earn $15 million internationally, its potential for longevity seems limited as it currently holds a 15% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and received a C grade on CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences.
According to Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore, “It’s not always guaranteed that a spin-off character will be able to connect with audiences. General audiences seem to want to know exactly what they’re getting.” This could explain why “Kraven the Hunter” failed to make a splash at the box office.
On a more positive note, several awards contenders opened in limited release over the weekend, including Paramount’s “September 5,” which tells the story of ABC’s coverage of the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. Amazon MGM and Orion’s “Nickel Boys,” based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel about an abusive reform school in Florida, also opened in two theaters in New York and earned an impressive average of $30,422 per screen. It will be expanding to Los Angeles before going nationwide in the coming weeks.
As we approach the end of the year, some highly anticipated movies are still to come. “Mufasa” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” are set to hit theaters in the coming weeks, along with a range of arthouse and adult releases such as “Babygirl,” “Nosferatu,” and “A Complete Unknown.”
Despite the disappointing performance of “Kraven the Hunter,” the box office has seen a dramatic recovery since June, when it was down nearly 28% from the previous year. The deficit now stands at only 4.8%, which is a promising sign for the industry’s recovery.
In conclusion, the opening
