Kraven often is the world’s biggest hunter, however the comedian e book villain couldn’t handle the climb to the highest of the field workplace charts.

Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter,” a superhero spinoff starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Spider-Man’s infamous foe, launched behind already low expectations, at No. 3 with $11 million from 3,211 theaters. It landed the worst debut for Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters behind February’s misfire “Madame Net” ($15.3 million), in addition to a few of the franchise’s lowest-ever marks from critics and audiences with a tragic 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and “C” grade on CinemaScore. That sort of reception alerts that, barring a vacation miracle, “Kraven” gained’t rebound over the remainder of December.

“Kraven the Hunter” is Sony’s third Spider-Man-adjacent adaptation of the yr, following October’s “Venom: The Final Dance.” The alien symbiote trilogy, led by Tom Hardy, has confirmed itself to be critic-proof and commercially profitable, though the third and last film didn’t dwell as much as the field off heights of its predecessors. Sony has in any other case but to provide a comic book e book hit from its offshoots led by tertiary Spider-Man baddies. The studio additionally stumbled in 2022 with “Morbius,” a vampire-inspired thriller with Jared Leto because the fanged villain — one other one among Peter Parker’s notorious enemies. These started at a time when superheroes had been all the craze on the field workplace, however ticket gross sales for too many current comedian e book tentpoles have been decidedly Earth-bound.

The long-delayed “Kraven” value an upward of $110 million to provide (it was greenlit for $90 million however ballooned after final yr’s writers and actors strikes), although it was co-financed by TSG. Directed by J.C. Chandor, the R-rated movie explores the origins of Sergei Kravinoff, the comedian e book character’s alter ego, together with his rocky relationship together with his crime lord father (Russell Crowe) and his quest to change into the best hunter.

“Because the superhero style has declined over the past 5 years, ‘Morbius,’ ‘Madame Net’ and ‘Kraven’ have led the race to the underside,” says David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting agency Franchise Leisure Analysis. “Kraven’s finances was downsized in response to the realities of the market, however it’s nonetheless too excessive for this type of end result.”

Additionally this weekend, the Warner Bros. anime fantasy movie “The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of the Rohirrim” stumbled in fifth place with $4.6 million from 2,602 cinemas in its opening weekend. It carries a modest finances of $30 million, so any losses throughout its theatrical run gained’t be ruinous for the studio. Plus, field workplace riches weren’t essentially the impetus for “Battle of the Rohirrim,” based mostly on J. R. R. Tolkien characters and set 183 years earlier than the occasions of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, getting the greenlight. The animated movie was developed and fast-tracked to make sure that New Line Cinema didn’t lose the movie adaptation rights for Tolkien’s novels whereas Jackson and the groups behind the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies had been engaged on two new live-action movies for 2026 and past. The primary of these motion pictures, tentatively titled “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum,” will likely be directed by and star Andy Serkis.

“Battle of the Rohirrim,” which has combined opinions and a tepid “B” on CinemaScore, faltered final weekend in its worldwide field workplace debut with simply $2 million from 31 territories. It expands to 42 further offshore markets over the weekend.

Regardless of the 2 newcomers, Disney’s “Moana 2” retained the No. 1 spot on home field workplace charts for the third consecutive weekend with $26.6 million from 4,000 theaters. The Polynesian-set animated journey, which was initially commissioned for streaming, has change into a theatrical smash with $337.5 million in North America and $717 million globally to this point. It’s already the yr’s fifth-highest grossing film domestically and fourth-biggest world launch.

Common’s “Depraved” adaptation earned greater than double that of “Kraven” regardless that the big-budget musical has already been taking part in in theaters for a month. “Depraved” stayed in second place with a blinding $22.5 million from 3,689 venues in its fourth weekend of launch. The movie, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, has generated $359 million domestically and greater than $524 million worldwide up to now. It’s the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in home field workplace historical past, forward of 1978’s “Grease” ($188.62 million), in addition to the second-biggest worldwide stage-to-screen reimagining after 2008’s “Mamma Mia” ($611 million).

Paramount’s “Gladiator II” landed within the No. 3 spot with $7.8 million in its fourth body. The quarter-century-in-the-making sequel to Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning 2000 epic “Gladiator” has earned $145.9 million in North America and greater than $398.5 million globally.

Heading into the coveted vacation body, general field workplace revenues are 4.8% behind 2023 and 23% behind 2019, in response to Comscore. “Moana 2” and “Glicked” (the portmanteau for the 2 movies with twin launch dates and non secular sequel of “Barbenheimer”) will proceed to rule at multiplexes till Christmas time, when Disney’s “The Lion King” prequel “Mufasa,” Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and A24’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” all open on Dec. 20. Just a few days later, the Focus Options’ “Nosferatu” remake and Searchlight’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Full Unknown, starring Timothee Chalamet, land on Dec. 25 to shut out the yr.

Till then, it’ll be all Moana, Glinda and Elphaba on a regular basis.