Sony CEO says critics to blame for ‘Madame Web’ and ‘Kraven The Hunter’ flops: “The press just crucified it”

The CEO of Sony Pictures has laid the blame for the box office failure of Madame Web and Kraven The Hunter with the critics who “crucified” the films.

The two 2024 films were entries in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which also features the three Venom films and Morbius, both of which had a rough ride at the cinematic box office. Madame Web made just over $100million (£80million) against a similar budget, while Kraven has accrued just $45million against a budget nearly three times as high.

Madame Web also sits on a paltry 11 per cent critics score on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, while Kraven is not doing much better with 17 per cent.

Now, Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra has given an interview to the Los Angeles Times in which he blames the critical reactions to the films for their dismal commercial performance.

“Madame Web underperformed in the theaters because the press just crucified it,” Vinciquerra said. “It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix. 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. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason.”

He did, however, concede that the company’s Spider-Man Universe cannot carry on in the way it has been for much longer. “I do think we need to rethink it, just because it’s snake-bitten,” he said. “If we put another one out, it’s going to get destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is.”

The franchise did have one hit in 2024, in the form of Venom: The Last Dance, the third and final instalment in the Tom Hardy-led trilogy. That film pulled in £476million (£379million) worldwide, making it the 10th highest-grossing film of the year.

Kraven The Hunter stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the title character, a big-game hunter who is set on a path of vengeance as the result of a complex relationship with his father, played by Russell Crowe.

Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) co-stars as Calypso Ezili, a voodoo priestess and Kraven’s love interest, and the film is directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year).

Madame Web, meanwhile, starred Dakota Johnson in the lead role as a woman who develops psychic abilities, alongside Sydney Sweeney, Emma Roberts and Adam Scott.

Johnson later spoke about her experience with the film, saying she was “not surprised” at its negative reception, arguing that you “cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms”.

“I had never done anything like it before,” she added. “I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now.”

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