Sony’s Kraven the Hunter Tracking to Open Below Madame Web at the Box Office

Sony Pictures could be on the hunt for a new franchise. Kraven the Hunter, the latest and potentially last installment in the Marvel-based Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, is tracking to open with a franchise-low $13 million to $15 million when the R-rated movie claws its way into theaters on Dec. 13. That would be lower than even Madame Web, which went on to bomb at the box office after a $13.5 million start in February, and 2022’s Morbius, the Jared Leto-fronted flop that sunk its teeth into $17.3 million on its first day and a total of $39 million over its opening weekend.

The $110 million-budgeted Kraven will screen in 3,200 theaters — far below the theater count for Venom: The Last Dance (4,131 theaters), Madame Web (4,013 theaters), and Morbius (4,268 theaters) — as it opens against The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Warner Bros.’ anime prequel that is eyeing $6 million to $7 million from 3,500 theaters after receiving mixed reviews.

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Disney’s Moana 2 is expected to keep the No. 1 spot for the third consecutive week with upwards of $30 million, while Universal’s Wicked, in its fourth week, is projected to take second place with $18 million to $20 million. Should Kraven open in third place, it would be the only SSU movie to have the distinction of opening at No. 3 in its first week: 2018’s Venom, 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and Morbius managed to open at No. 1, while Madame Web came in second behind Paramount’s Bob Marley biopic One Love over Valentine’s Day. Kraven would join Madame Web, 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and 2015’s Fantastic Four as one of the few Marvel adaptations not to open in first place at the box office.

Kraven will cap off Columbia’s year-long 100th anniversary celebration, a centennial that has been marred by bombs, including Fly Me to the Moon ($42 million) and Harold and the Purple Crayon ($32 million). Despite diminishing returns, Sony’s biggest hit of the year was Venom 3 ($472 million), followed by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence action-comedy Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($404 million) and the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni romantic drama It Ends With Us ($350 million).

This year’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Bad Boys 4 pushed both Sony franchises past the billion mark, and the studio will revive more of its franchises in 2025 with Karate Kid: Legends, the Aaron Taylor-Johnson starring 28 Years Later, and the legacy sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Starring Taylor-Johnson (Sony’s Bullet Train) as the eponymous Spider-Man villain, Kraven the Hunter is directed by J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, Triple Frontier) and co-stars Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) as Calypso, Fred Hechinger (Gladiator II) as Chameleon, Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) as the Foreigner, Alessandro Nivola (The Brutalist) as the Rhino, and Russell Crowe (The Pope’s Exorcist) as Nikolai Kravinoff. Kraven the Hunter is only in theaters December 13.