Sony Pictures had a dream—a big, cinematic universe dream where Spider-Man’s side characters would shine like the stars they almost are. That dream, unfortunately, tripped over its own web and face-planted into a puddle of box office despair. Enter Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter, two films that proved you can have all the Spidey connections in the world and still miss the mark like a villain firing blanks.
For the uninitiated, while Disney hoards Marvel like a dragon with gold, Sony clings tightly to its Spider-Man goodies like the last slice of pizza at a party. They’ve spun off flicks like Venom (not bad), Morbius (lol), and now these two cinematic curiosities.
And who better to defend these not-so-great-but-not-terrible movies than Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra, who rolled up his sleeves and told the press: “Y’all are the problem.”
“Madame Web underperformed in theaters because the press just crucified it,” Vinciquerra told the Los Angeles Times while metaphorically shaking his fist at the clouds. “It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix,” he added, as if Netflix success is the new bar for cinematic greatness.
Tony wasn’t done, oh no. He doubled down: “For some reason, the press decided that they didn’t want us making these films out of Kraven and Madame Web, and the critics just destroyed them.” Yep, those pesky critics, armed with pens sharper than Kraven’s claws, apparently torpedoed what could’ve been masterpieces.
“These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason,” Tony repeated, perhaps hoping if he said it enough, the movies might magically gross a billion dollars.
But let’s talk numbers because they don’t lie, even when the CEO spins harder than a Spider-Man fight scene. Madame Web swung its way to a lackluster $56 million at the domestic box office and $100 million worldwide. Meanwhile, Kraven the Hunter has clawed its way to a whopping $44 million globally after two weeks. Combined, that’s… still not great.
Tony Vinciquerra wants you to know that the real villains here aren’t the movies or Sony’s questionable decision-making. Nope, it’s the critics and the press, who’ve somehow managed to become the Thanos of Sony’s Spider-Verse dreams. Snap, and half the box office potential was gone. But hey, there’s always Netflix, right?
