Sony Ending Spider-Man Universe That Never Featured Spider-Man After 'Kraven The Hunter'
A new report claims that Sony Pictures is ending its Spider-Man universe of films that never actually featured Spider-Man following the release of Kraven the Hunter.
Umberto Gonzalez at TheWrap reveals that Kraven The Hunter will be the last film in the universe of films that Sony produced without Spider-Man that included the Venom trilogy, Morbius, and Madame Web.
An alleged top talent informed Gonzalez, “They’ve developed what they want to develop for now. It’s really about the next Spider-Man film.”
Gonzalez also reported that a Sony insider informed him that “the studio is now focusing its efforts on Holland’s highly anticipated fourth Spider-Man film, the next installment in the acclaimed Spider-Verse animated film series with Beyond the Spider-Verse and a Spider-Noir television series featuring Nicolas Cage — projects that lean into, rather than away from, the web-slinger’s central appeal.”
This report is not at all surprising given the performance of these films. While the first Venom movie was a definite success the box office performance substantially waned after it.
Venom grossed $856 million at the global box office when it debuted back in 2018. The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage raked in just $501.5 million in 2021 albeit Covid affected.
However, the third film, which came out just this past October has only grossed $472.8 million so far. None of this adjusts for inflation.
On top of the Venom trilogy seeing significant declines between the three films, Morbius only grossed $162.7 million when it released in April 2022.
Madame Web did even worse with just a global gross of $100.3 million back in February.
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Kraven the Hunter does not appear to be eschewing that trend. In his report, Gonzalez noted that a screening of the film at Brazil’s Comic Con Experience (CCXP) this past Sunday “played to rows of empty seats.”
He added, “There were no stars, and not that many fans. Just silence where superhero hype should have been.”
Box Office Theory also predicted at the beginning of November that the film would have an extraordinarily soft domestic opening. Shawn Robbins detailed that he was only expecting the film to have an opening weekend gross between $16 million and $24 million. He specifically predicted it would do around $20 million.
As for its entire run at the domestic box office, he predicted a range between $41.5 million and $72 million. As for his specific target he said it would do around $52.2 million.
For comparison, Morbius did $39 million domestically in its opening weekend while Madame Web did just $15.3 million. Venom: The last Dance had a $51 million opening weekend.
As for their overall hauls at the domestic box office, Morbius did $73.8 million, Madame Web did $43.8 million, and Venom: The Last Dance has done $139.1 million so far.
What do you make of Sony shutting down their Spider-Man universe that never featured Spider-Man?