Kraventhe Hunter’sbox officelooks worse than anyone expected. The total between Thursday’s previews and Friday’s first day was only$4.7 million.
That’s pretty dismal.
How dismal? Let’s compareKravento itsSpider-adjacent peers.
How To Watch Marvel Movies In Order
Having trouble figuring out the order to watch Marvel movies? Well, here’s the release and chronological order that to catch up on the MCU.
How DoesKravenCompare To Other Marvel Movies?
I actually went and looked at how many movies have been based on Marvel characters. The answer is 72. At this point, I imagine you are curious if any had a worse opening day thanKraven.
Drum roll, please.
Yes. There have been three Marvel character movies with worse openings thanKraven.
However, these figures do not include inflation. What happens when we adjust?
Appropriately contextualized,Kravenis one spot away from having the worst opening day of any Marvel-based movie. The existence ofPunisher: War Zoneis the only thing betweenKravenand infamy.
Sony’s Superhero Problem
To me, that puts into perspective just how badly Sony has fumbled their opportunity to make Marvel films. It’s sad because the first twoSpider-Manmovies, from 2002 and 2004, were great. But you know what happened with 2007’sSpider-Man 3?
Sony forced director Sam Raimi to include the character Venom. Raimi, on theNerdist podcast, said:
It’s a movie that just didn’t work very well. I tried to make it work, but I didn’t really believe in all the characters, so that couldn’t be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man. If the director doesn’t love something, it’s wrong of them to make it when so many other people love it. I think [raising the stakes after Spider-Man 2 ] was the thinking going into it, and I think that’s what doomed us.
Raimi refused to return forSpider-Man 4because he wanted Vulture to be the villain and Sony demanded Lizard. Here we are, all these years later, and it seems Sony still can’t figure it out.
Audiences are no longer happy for superhero films to simply exist. They now want and expect quality. Poor creative decisions, lack of cohesion, and dialogue that induces fits of eye-rolling will no longer cut it. That’s as true for Sony superhero films as it is forDisneyand Warner Bros. Hopefully the studios figure that out sooner rather than later.
