The box office outlook for Kraven the Hunter keeps getting worse and worse. While the underwhelming Thursday previews made it obvious the film wasn’t going to even live up to our modest box office predictions; Deadline is reporting that the movie is now on track for a $12 million opening – tops. Some even expect the movie to have a hard time topping $10 million, making it one of the worst-performing superhero films of all time.
So what’s happening?
The reviews for Kraven have been poor, but the CinemaScore rating is even worse than expected, with it earning a C rating. By comparison, Madame Web, which is a movie I’ve never heard anyone say anything positive about (even its star), managed to earn a C+ rating. People actually seem to be liking it LESS than Madame Web. The only silver lining for Kraven is that it’s performing a lot better than Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which is only on track for a $5 million opening. That said, it only cost about $30 million compared to Kraven’s $110 million budget.
Meanwhile Moana 2 should make about $26 million, while Wicked isn’ too far behind it with about $20 million and change. Gladiator II is just behind Kraven, with a $7 million-plus opening and a $145 million domestic total. No news yet on what the re-release of Interstellar grossed this weekend, as there’s a possibility it could outgross LOTR for a fifth-place finish.
At any rate, it looks like Sony’s Spider-Verse is coming to a brutal finish, with it unlikely we’ll see any more live-action entries that don’t star Tom Hardy as Venom (with the series still pulling in half-decent grosses) or Tom Holland as Spider-Man (not counting the upcoming Spider-Noir series).