UPDATE: 2025-07-30 07:48 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN
Kraven The Hunter’s Projections Slide $1 Million Lower Than Saturday Estimates
This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with up-to-date box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.
Kraven the Hunterhas hit a record franchise low in its opening weekend. The J. C. Chandor-directed movie, which follows a hunter who uses his bond with animals to help get revenge on his criminal father, is the latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which includes the commercially successfulVenomtrilogy as well as the critical and commercial flopsMorbiusandMadame Web. TheKraven the Huntercastincludes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe.
PerVariety, as of Sunday morning,Kraven the Hunteris projected to close out its opening weekend with a 3-day domestic gross of$11 million. This is not enough for the movie to topple the holdover Thanksgiving hitsMoana 2andWicked, which maintain their positions at the top of the chart, letting the Spider-Man Universe movie land at No. 3 in its debut. Additionally,it has earned the worst opening weekend of the entire franchise, coming in below the previous record-holder, which wasMadame Webwith a $15.3 million debut.
The weekend’s other new release, the anime prequelThe Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, has also underperformed. It isset to open at No. 5 with $5.4 million, which marks the worst theatrical debut for the Peter Jackson-produced franchise, earning roughly one-ninth ofThe Fellowship of the Ring’s $47.2 million debut, which was the previousLOTRlow. However, it has a relatively tight budget of $30 million, which should help cushion it in the long run. Below, see a full breakdown of the Top 5 movies at the domestic box office for the weekend:
1
$26.6 million
$337.5 million (weekend 3)
2
$22.5 million
$359 million (weekend 4)
3
$11 million
$11 million (weekend 1)
4
$7.8 million
$145.9 million (weekend 4)
5
$5.4 million
$5.4 million (weekend 1)
With two new releases on the chart, however low they debuted, this means that there has been some significant movement from the previous weekend.Gladiator IIfell from No. 3 to No. 4 with a healthy 38% drop, while the Tollywood outingPushpa: The Rule - Part 2fell from No. 4 to No. 8 with a $1.6 million haul representing a 67% drop, though it has now passed the $10 million domestic milestone. Meanwhile, the lukewarm Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson-led action-comedyRed Onefell from No. 5 to No. 6 with $4.4 million at a 36% drop.
“Tollywood” is the word for Telugu-language cinema from India, a category that also includes the Oscar-winning 2022 smash hitRRR.
Elsewhere on the chart, the previous weekend’s new release,Y2K, has fallen out of the Top 10 completely, landing at No. 11 with a $685,000 gross at a 68% drop after debuting at No. 9. It is beingconsiderably outperformed by the 10th anniversary re-release of Christopher Nolan’sInterstellar, which has only dropped one position, falling from No. 6 to No. 7, with an incredible 28% drop and a $3.3 million 3-day total. Just like theCoralinere-release earlier in the year, the movie is proving that bringing movies back to theaters can pay huge dividends if timed well.
What This Opening Weekend Means For Kraven The Hunter
It Probably Won’t Make Its Money Back
While the superhero universe has consistently had trouble connecting with audiences outside of theVenomsubfranchise, theKraven the Hunterreleaseis seeing those returns diminish even more from the heights promised by the first twoVenommovies, whichboth debuted above $80 millionand ended up grossing more than $500 million apiece worldwide, earning $1.36 billion between them. Below, see a breakdown of howKravencompares to the opening weekends of every movie in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and their overall worldwide box office performance:
$80.2 million
$856 million
$90 million
$506.8 million
$39 million
$167.5 million
$15.3 million
$100.5 million
$51 million
$472.9 million
TBD
If the new movie maintains a trajectory consistently behind that of the notable flopMadame Web, which earned a dismal 11% Rotten Tomatoes score,it will most likely gross less than $100 million worldwide. This would be a crushing result, as theKraven the Hunterbudgetis estimated to be between $110 and $130 million, likely meaning that it would need to earn at least $275 million in order to break even. Its own Rotten Tomatoes score of 15% probably means it will not earn a word-of-mouth boost to help launch it above its competitors, either.
Our Take On The Weekend Box Office
There Is Still Hope For 2024 Blockbusters
With bothKraven the HunterandLord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim(which is debuting with roughly $5 million) underperforming in their opening weekends,the box office will need another jolt of blockbuster energyifMoana 2andWickedare to be toppled. However, the Christmas box office period is just around the corner, bringing with it the promise of bothSonic the Hedgehog 3andMufasa: The Lion King, so it seems likely that this weekend’s theatrical crash will prove to be a speed bump on a relatively smooth road through the end of the year.
Kraven the Hunter
Cast
Kraven the Hunter explores the origin story of Sergei Kravinoff, known as Kraven, as he navigates his tumultuous relationship with his father, Nikolai. This path of vengeance sets Kraven on a journey to become a formidable hunter with a reputation for fearsome brutality.
