Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra has come forward to defend its recent string of Marvel movie flops like Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter, placing the blame solely on critics and insisting that the films were “not terrible”.
Kraven the Hunter opened on 12 December 2024 to a measly US$11 million in the U.S., making it the lowest debut to date for a Sony Marvel movie, and has thus far garnered a global box office of US$43 million. Following in a similar vein, Madame Web also flopped with US$100 million worldwide, making this year a lacklustre one for Sony’s superhero films.
Speaking to Los Angeles Times, Vinciquerra insisted that Kraven the Hunter was “not a bad film” despite its poor performance, while also blaming critics for “destroying” Madame Web earlier in the year.
“Madame Web underperformed in the theatres because the press just crucified it. It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix.” he said, “For some reason, the press decided that they didn’t want us making these films, and the critics just destroyed them. They also did it with Venom, but the audience loved Venom and made Venom a massive hit. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason.”
If Vinciquerra is right about one thing, it’s that critics don’t have a high opinion on its recent Marvel movies. Madame Web currently sits at an abysmal 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Kraven the Hunter barely performed any better with a 16% score. Both films also received “generally unfavourable” scores on Metacritic, at 26 and 35 respectively, out of 100.
Because of this, Vinciquerra believes that the studio will need to be more discerning about how to move forward with its Spider-Man-related properties, as he insists that critics will continue to deem the films a failure no matter their quality.
“It’s snake-bitten. If we put another one out, it’s going to get destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is.”
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
