After spending nearly half a billion dollars, Sony will mercifully cancel its Spider-Man villain universe after the release of Kraven The Hunter this weekend.
The Wrap reported that Sony spent more than $465 million in combined production costs on films like Morbius, Madame Web, and now Kraven. The studio also produced three moderately successful Venom films. With that trilogy finished, it seems like the right time for Sony to focus on Spider-Man cinematic offerings that actually feature Spider-Man.
A screenshot from Venom: The Last Dance (2024), Sony Pictures
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“The biggest issue with the Sony Spider-Man spinoffs seems to be the lack of quality control,” a Sony insider told The Wrap. “The movies just aren’t good.”
The box office supports that claim, with Morbius and Madame Web bombing in spectacular fashion.
Morbius grossed $167,460,961 worldwide after two releases on a relatively small (for a comic book movie) $75 million budget. Factoring in marketing costs and movie theater cuts, Sony took a big loss on the film.
Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
Madame Web performed even worse, taking in $100,498,764 on an $80 million budget. It earned less than Morbius but cost more to produce.
The Venom films, while still considered hits, delivered decreasing returns with each installment.
The first Venom made over $856 million on a $120 million budget. Venom: Let There Be Carnage earned $506 million on a $110 million budget. The final part of the trilogy, Venom: The Last Dance, pulled in $473 million on a $120 million budget.
A screenshot from Venom: The Last Dance (2024), Sony Pictures
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A second Sony insider told The Wrap that the studio will shift focus to Tom Holland’s fourth MCU “Spider-Man” film. They’ll also prioritize the “Spider-Verse” animated movies and develop a “Spider-Noir” television series featuring Nicolas Cage.
Kraven The Hunter releases in theaters this week, and analysts do not expect it to generate significant box office revenue. Industry experts estimate that Kraven will debut with a $20 million opening weekend on a $110 million budget.
Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Tom Holland as Peter Parker, and Andrew Garfield as Peter Park in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Marvel Studios
Sony originally planned to run these movies like an offshoot Marvel Cinematic Universe, culminating in a Sinister Six team-up film ala Marvel’s Avengers. It seems those hopes, along with the expressed sequel hopes of Kraven director J.C. Chandor, have disappeared.
Are you happy about the destruction of the Sony Spider-Man villain universe? Did it ever have potential? What’s your favorite entry? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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Not specially happy, to be fair i am actually more of a fan of the Antihero figure or charismatic Villian, but It always come back to DEI and Wokism again, the writing in those movies were Meh at best i would asume Directors or produces were forced to do a lot of things for Sony DEI department, and i would argue venon was actually good but they couldnt make a step 2 in the right direction after first movie, thats why people got bored and stopped following it
Venom 3 wasn’t that good, but I saw it in theaters. The biggest problem with the spinoffs was the quality of the photography. It didn’t have the flash and polish of the Marvel movies. The stories are worse even though it wasn’t as Woke as Disney’s version. Sadly, superhero movies are just getting worse despite a singular gem like Deadpool.
Can we PLEASE just finally let superhero movies go the way of the Western and ride off into the sunset?
I went back and watched the original “Iron Man” recently and was shocked by how good it was. I don’t want the superhero genre to go away; I just want them to get back to making smart, entertaining movies.
Those were a terrible idea from the start. I thin Sony saw the success of Joker and thought to replicate it with Spider-Man’s rogue gallery, but that was pretty stupid, because you need the villain-hero dynamic for a superhero movie to work.
At least Hasbro didn’t make thousands of toys for these movies, only to have them languish unsold on Ollie’s Bargain Outlet shelves.
If I was a college professor that taught movie stuff, I’d buy up a whole bunch of Rey Palpatine toys at bargain basements just to give one each semester to the worst student in the class.
I don’t think the overarching idea is wrong here. Sony wants to remain on the superhero bandwagon and Spider Verse is the only thing they have going.
The thing there is so many cool stories to be told, the problem is that they make movies that are either only ok-ish (Venom) or absolute trash (everything else). How could you waste something like Maximum Carnage story line. Inconceivable!
They hire absolute stooges to run their 100+ mil releases. Look up the woman who was at helm of Madame Web. Her best credits to date was probably Power Rangers.
This is what you get as a result.
In stark contrast animated division is blowing the roof of the house with Miles Morales, how does it happen that all people with talent are there, and movie decision got absolute worst?