How Kraven The Hunter Ended The Sony Spider-Man Universe

The reviews for "Kraven the Hunter" are in, and it looks like Sony's Spider-Man Universe is coming to a close. For fans of the "Venom" franchise, that's probably a sad bit of news, but for everyone else, it might be more confusing than anything.

After six years, six films, and four main characters, it's still somehow almost impossible to make sense of the Sony Spider-Man timeline. "Venom," "Morbius," "Madame Web," and "Kraven the Hunter" are supposed to be contained in a cohesive universe, but the movies have only the most tentative connections to each other. The only thing the movies all have in common is that they're missing the one element that might help them to make sense: Spider-Man. There's a real reason why Spider-Man wasn't in 2018's "Venom," and why this whole universe got off on the wrong foot, but knowing the backstory doesn't really help any of this make much more sense.

"Kraven" absolutely bombed at the box office, and because of that you could reasonably argue that it's the low point of this entire endeavor. The movie isn't without a few redeeming features, but ultimately it's as messy and uncompelling as the rest of Sony's series of Spider-Man villain movies. "Kraven" wasn't planned as the ending of the story, but the writing was on the wall even before the movie debuted. Here's how "Kraven" managed to end the Sony Spider-Man Universe.

Well before "Kraven the Hunter" ever hit theaters, people knew that the movie wasn't going to be a box office smash. "Madame Web" and "Venom: The Last Dance" didn't fare particularly well at the box office, and nobody expected "Kraven" to outperform them. Ahead of its debut, some projections estimated that "Kraven" would earn somewhere between $20 and $25 million during its opening weekend. That's not a lot of money for a big-budget superhero flick, and even the people behind the movie seemed to acknowledge that things weren't looking good.

In an interview with ComicBook, "Kraven the Hunter" director J.C. Chandor acknowledged that the other Sony Spider-Man Universe movies had given the concept a bad reputation that might damage the performance of his movie. Chandor said, "People have got to give us a chance and come out and support this film, and literally try to wash away some of the other stuff that's happened. Give our film a chance." Despite Chandor's plea, it seems pretty obvious that the reception of movies like "Morbius" and "Madame Web" had an effect on the bottom line of "Kraven."

No one expected "Kraven the Hunter" to set a new highwater mark for the Sony Spider-Man Universe, but there was some hope that it could at least outperform "Madame Web," which earned roughly $15 million in its opening weekend. The lowest projections for "Kraven" put the movie's opening at just $13 million, but some more optimistic takes guessed the movie might bring in upwards of $20 million.

Ultimately, "Kraven" beat all the projections in the worst way possible. The movie earned just $11 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend. It came in with a lower opening than "Madame Web" and a significantly lower opening than Sony's other two worst performers, "Morbius" and "Venom: The Last Dance," which earned $39 million and $51 million, respectively. Globally, "Kraven" didn't do any better, earning just $15 million despite opening in over 20,000 theaters.

"Kraven" couldn't have gotten off to a more disappointing start, and unfortunately there's not much reason to suspect that the movie will turn things around going forward. It experienced a whopping 66% drop at the box office in its first Monday, which just goes to show that word of mouth isn't likely to keep the movie on life support for very long. On top of that, "Kraven" has other factors, like its production budget, working against it.

"Kraven the Hunter" had a bad time at the box office by any metric, but the problems were compounded because the movie cost so much money to make. Superhero movies in general often end up being listed among the most expensive movies ever made because they rely so heavily on pricey visual effects. "Kraven" might not have needed the hundreds of millions of dollars it cost Marvel to make a movie like "Avengers: Endgame," but the movie's budget faced other issues.

"Kraven" took an overly long time to develop. It was initially conceived in 2018, but filming didn't begin until all the way in 2022. At that point, "Kraven" cost $90 million to make, but reshoots for the movie were complicated by the writers' strike in 2023, causing the budget to balloon up to $110 million. 

Even at $90 million, the budget for "Kraven" would be a massive problem considering how little the movie made during its opening weekend, but it's especially bad that the movie's $11 million box office take covered just half of the increased production costs. If the Sony Spider-Man Universe were to continue after "Kraven," it would have to find a whole new source of funds since the movie isn't likely to make anything near a profit.

It's easy enough to argue that "Kraven the Hunter" failed on its own merits, but it's worth noting that the movie didn't have favorable conditions going into its opening weekend. While "Kraven" wasn't up against many new movies, it did need to compete against two box office giants. "Moana 2" took the weekend's top spot by earning over $26 million, and "Wicked" continued to blow everyone away by raking in over $22 million despite having been in theaters for nearly a month.

On the new movie front, "Kraven" did have to contend with the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim." That animated movie took fifth place at the weekend box office, earning just over $4.5 million, but it potentially siphoned off some would-be "Kraven" viewers. With its R rating, "Kraven" was targeting a slightly different audience than all those films, but even there it had to compete with "Gladiator II." Sony's movie ultimately earned more money over the weekend, but "Gladiator II" raked in well over $7 million despite being in its third week. 

The bottom line is that all kinds of audiences had other options the weekend the "Kraven" started its box office run, and people largely opted to not give the movie a chance. A different set of competitors almost certainly wouldn't have turned "Kraven" into a hit, but the movie might have been able to perform just a little bit better.

Critics weren't enamored with "Kraven the Hunter," and that's not very surprising. "Madame Web" has an abysmal 11% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and despite being the fan-favorite franchise of the Sony Spider-Man Universe, the "Venom" movies have never been critical darlings either. Considering the surrounding context, "Kraven" might have actually performed better with critics than some might expect, but that still isn't particularly good.

Metacritic gave "Kraven" a score of 35, which is sure to keep the movie off many people's "to watch" list but isn't quite low enough to land it on a list of the worst movies ever made. The Rotten Tomatoes score, on the other hand, was a little more alarming. At just a 14% approval rating, "Kraven" might beat out "Madame Web," but it still ranks among the worst comic book movies of all time.

It's worth mentioning that audiences seem to be taking it quite a bit easier on "Kraven." At the time of this writing, the audience approval score sits at 71%, which puts "Kraven" firmly into "Morbius" territory. The filmmakers might not see that similarity as a good thing, since audiences mostly seem to love how bad "Morbius" is, but it does mean that "Kraven" could go on to find some kind of loyal fanbase in the future.

"Kraven the Hunter" may be a misguided effort released at an unfortunate time, but the movie still has some redeeming qualities. Many reviewers agreed that despite a lackluster story, the movie's action scenes were top-notch and made even better by Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance. "He's great as Kraven the Hunter," said YouTuber Zach Pope in his review, "at least in terms of the action and embodying that." Shadows on the Wall also praised the movie's leading man by noting, "Taylor-Johnson is always interesting on screen, and has an engaging, magnetic presence here," while also celebrating the performances of Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, and Fred Hechinger.

Of course, solid acting can only carry a movie so far. Both of the above reviews maligned the dialogue in the movie and noted that the actors were obviously held back by the lines they needed to deliver. Other reviewers pointed out how the uneven pacing and sloppy editing marred the overall experience of the movie, and some boiled down their criticism of the film to a single point: it's a bit boring.

While The i Paper's review also had good things to say about the performances in the film, particular Taylor-Johnson's, it concluded, "His presence — and slightly Meerkat-esque Russian accent — is not enough to paper the cracks of [the film's] dwindling entertainment factor." The few positive elements the movie had going for it were completely outmatched by everything dragging the movie down.

"Kraven the Hunter" also faced some problems that had nothing to do with the movie itself or with the rest of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The truth is that even in the world of Marvel comics, Kraven just isn't that big of a character. He's an iconic Spider-Man villain who's been fighting the webhead for decades, but Kraven's never really moved outside that universe. He hasn't squared off against the Avengers quite like Ultron or Kang, and he's not an epic-level threat like Thanos or Galactus.

In the world of the comics, Kraven is closer to Morbius or Madame Web than, say, Venom. The symbiote has had plenty of his own solo comic series and has even been portrayed as a hero at times. Venom has a cult following all his own, and that's a big part of why the "Venom" movies have found some success. Kraven, on the other hand, is really just a B-level character who only exists to play a supporting role in Spider-Man's story. You're always going to expect to see Kraven pop up in Spidey comics, but you'll almost never see him anywhere else. Because of that, it's a little surprising that Sony tried to make Kraven the star of his own movie in the first place.

Kraven isn't the most famous Marvel villain by any stretch of the imagination, but diehard Spider-Man fans still love the character. Kraven has a long history in Spider-Man's rogues gallery, even famously killing everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood superhero in one story. Because of that history, there are definitely some people who were intrigued to see what a live-action version of Kraven would actually be like.

Those people probably found themselves a little lost by what they saw while watching "Kraven the Hunter." There are some aspects of the character — like his name, general set of abilities, and costume choices at the end of the movie — that are straight out of the comics, but in many ways Sony's version of the character is an entirely different person. The movie completely rewrites Kraven's backstory, motivation, and powerset from the comics.

In the movie, Kraven loves his brother and hates his drug trafficking father. He's an animal lover who, after a near-death experience, gets powers from a mysterious serum and ends up fighting against his father's criminal empire. In the comics, Kraven torments his brother, gets his powers by stealing a mystical potion from a witch doctor, and spends his life being wholly obsessed with hunting the most dangerous animals in existence. It's not surprising that the movie decided to tone down Kraven somewhat, but in the comics the hunter is at his best when he's at his most over-the-top. Sony's character just doesn't have the same appeal.

Sony massively changed Kraven's backstory for the movie, but "Kraven the Hunter" might have had a shot if it had included the single most important aspect of Kraven's character from the comics. If there's one thing that any comic book fan can tell you about Kraven, it's that his main goal in life is to be the person who kills Spider-Man. Kraven's unshakeable motivation is one part plot device and one part genuinely unique character trait. 

Unlike many other Spider-Man villains, Kraven doesn't have a personal connection to or vendetta against the webhead. Kraven just thinks that Spider-Man's powers make him the ideal target for the greatest hunt of all time. "Kraven" suffers from Spidey's absence more than any of the other Sony Spider-Man Universe movies. Venom has Eddie Brock to rely on, and together the two of them have their own set of enemies. Morbius can get some mileage out of his struggle with his vampiric nature, and Madame Web at least did have a tenuous connection to Spider-Man himself. 

"Kraven," however, feels completely disconnected from the broader universe, and the character doesn't function very well on his own because for decades his only real motivation in the comics has been killing Spider-Man. If all the other problems facing the movie had simply disappeared, "Kraven" would have still struggled to get past the fact that the movie doesn't make Spider-Man part of its story. 

It looks like "Kraven the Hunter" is going to bring the Sony Spider-Man Universe to a close, but what does that actually mean? Sony might not make any more standalone movies about Spider-Man villains in the near future, but the company certainly isn't done with the wall-crawler just yet. The animated "Spider-Verse" franchise is still very much alive, but it could be a while before it comes back to theaters: production on that franchise's third installment had to stop during the 2023 writers strike, and rumors have put its release as far out as 2026 or 2027.

Meanwhile, Sony is still keeping itself involved in the world of live-action Spider-Man movies. Sony and Marvel have confirmed that Tom Holland's fourth Spider-Man movie is in production, and it's currently scheduled to start filming in 2025. We've heard some "Spider-Man 4" plot rumors that suggest the movie could take place directly after the events of 2026's "Avengers: Doomsday," which makes sense since "Spider-Man 4" is set for release on July 24, 2026.

Even if Sony doesn't completely give up on the idea of having its own Spider-Man Universe, "Kraven the Hunter" is likely to be the end of the version of that universe we've already seen. The MCU is charging on ahead, and Spider-Man will have some role to play in what happens next. Sony's dysfunctional universe, on the other hand, is going to have to go back to the drawing board.