There's nothing quite like when a Marvel movie arrives in theaters. The sheer aura of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has resulted in must-see movie moments that brings audiences of all ages together to see what their favorite superheroes - and supervillains - have been getting up to. It's a movement at this point, and it's one that has persisted for almost two decades.
Now, whenever a Marvel Comics character headlines a major movie, there is intrigue and excitement from fans, all of whom wonder if the larger-than-life entity will be at the forefront of a massive success story. However, there is one extremely important thing to remember: Not all Marvel movies are produced by Marvel Studios.
While the MCU isn't failproof, its tried-and-true formula produces anything from entertaining-but-flawed-superhero movie to masterpiece. Some of the other recent movies to star a Marvel character, however, haven't had quite such luck. And now you can watch one of them on Netflix to see for yourself.
Kraven the Hunter arrives on Netflix
Kraven the Hunter has been added to Netflix's library. Released in December 2024, the film stars Aaron Taylor Johnson as the titular Spider-Man villain and it is part of Sony Pictures' Universe of Spider-Man Characters (or, simply, the Sony Spider-Man Universe). It joins its fellow films in that franchise (Madame Web, Morbius, and the Venom movie series) in making its presence felt on Netflix.
Like the live-action films mentioned above, Kraven the Hunter was not a hit with critics or audiences. If you exclude the Venom movies from the above list, then it was very much like its live-action Spider-Verse counterparts in that it wasn't a hit at all... in any capacity. Although audiences held out hope for the film due to Aaron Taylor Johnson's commitment to the role and its R rating, it ultimately failed in all respects, garnering just a 9% score on Rotten Tomatoes' TomatoMeter, making it one of the worst-reviewed Marvel - and superhero - movies of all time The rating currently sits at 15%, so it's fared a little better since its release, but the story was less positive for its box office performance.
Kraven grossed $62 million on a budget of $110 - $130 millon, making it a box-office bomb and one of the lowest-performing superhero movies ever made. Perhaps what shocked audiences more was that it made less than Madame Web, which was released earlier in the year to a similar response and underperformance. That movie won the Razzie Award for the Worst Picture of 2024, and yet it was more successful than its more graphic, comic-accurate, and action-packed successor in the Sony Spider-Verse.
Kraven marked the end of the Sony Spider-Man Universe
The failure of Kraven the Hunter marked the end of a chapter that fans were sure was going to end before it did. Sony Pictures' Spider-Man Universe may have started on a high with 2018's Venom but it couldn't maintain the momentum. Like Venom, the other two films in that trilogy were indeed very successful at the box office but each one got a worse response from critics and fans. But even though there was still life in those movies when the trilogy concluded, nothing else live-action managed to hit in that franchise.
Morbius underperformed at the box office in 2022 and it has since become one of the most memed movies of all time, with fans playfully dragging it in the years since that release. Sony thought it could capitalize on the movie's internet immortality and attempted a rerelease, only for it to perform much much worse the second time around.
Madame Web was already raising eyebrows before it arrived in theaters due to a very strange promo that featured an unusual, questionable line of dialogue that didn't even appear in the film. And yet, its trailer looked promising. But mainstream fans' lack of knowledge of the character and the franchise's worsening reputation resulted in a box office failure, as it grossed $100 million on a budget of $80 - $100 million.
Kraven's worse performance threw the future of the Sony franchise into question, with reports eventually confirming that it would be rebooted. But it would have to be very different because, as fans have pointed out many times before, a Spider-Man universe simply can't work without Spider-Man himself. And since Sony has made a deal with Marvel Studios that allows the webslinger to be a part of the MCU, that won't be happening anytime soon.
But does Kraven the Hunter deserve the bad reputation that it shares with predecessors Morbius and Madame Web? Well now you can answer that question yourself by checking the film out on Netflix.