Summary

• Sony's Spider-Man spin-off universe has faced financial challenges with box office numbers falling short of expectations.
• Madame Web and Morbius were disappointments, struggling to attract viewers due to poor reviews and limited interest in the characters.
• The films, Kraven The Hunter and Venom: The Last Dance, face uncertain box office futures, with more pressure on Venom for success.

Sony's Spider-Man spin-off universe has had a difficult run, with successive movies struggling to improve on their predecessor's box office. Beginning with Tom Hardy's Venom in 2018, Sony has posited that they don't need Spider-Man himself to make a daring cinematic universe featuring characters from the webslinger's expanded lore, even if Spider-Man supposedly does exist in Sony's universe off-screen. While Spider-Man's MCU journey has been one of Marvel Studio's most profitable ventures, Sony has yet to find the same level of success with his comic book peers.

In the wake of Sony's most recent commercial failures, the studio has seemingly put several more planned spin-off movies on the chopping block, most recently including the cancelation of the planned El Meurto movie. Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock has so far been carrying the franchise, with the universe's two other entries putting up abysmal numbers. This reputation could put Sony's future plans on the precipice of financial failure, with the box office fates of the Kraven the Hunter and Venom: The Last Dance in grave peril.

5 Madame Web (2024)

$100,298,817

The latest Sony Spider-Man spin-off film centers on one of the studio's most obscure characters yet, Madame Web. Better known for being the blind oracle that gave Spider-Man cryptic advice in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Madame Web seemed like a strange gamble for Sony at the time of its release, and its box office numbers seemed to have confirmed that theory. The film stars Dakota Johnson as the titular heroine, telling the origin story of how a simple paramedic became an omniscient spider diviner.

Madame Web was Sony's most abysmal box office performance yet, earning single lowest opening run in Spider-Man history.

Madame Web had a number of factors going against it that contributed to its shockingly low numbers. Madame Web is an obscure character in the first place, with the film being the first comic book movie ever made to star a protagonist that never headlined their own comic. On top of that, the film's poor critical reception, negative word-of-mouth reviews, and Dakota Johnson's bizarre press tour that made no effort to hide her clear distaste for the movie killed any remaining interest. Madame Web lost big to Bob Marely: One Love, which released on the same Valentine's Day.

4 Morbius (2022)

$167,460,961

After Venom's modest success, Sony decided to pivot to a villain-centric universe, adding Dr. Michael Morbius to the roster of their new franchise. Boasting the star power of Jared Leto and Matt Smith, Morbius could've hoped to make up for the titular vampire's lack of marquee value. The film follows Dr. Michael Morbius, a brilliant biochemical scientist who, in an attempt to cure himself of a rare bloodborne disease, ends up accidentally turning himself into a vampire. When the wealthy scion uses the same formula only to descend into madness, Morbius is the only one capable of stopping him.

The first major flop of Sony's Spider-Man universe

Sony was tricked into re-releasing Morbius due to a misread of a sarcastic positive reception on the internet, likely costing the studio lose what little money they were able to recoup on the project.

Like Madame Web after it, Morbius suffered from critical panning shortly after its release, compounding with the character's relative obscurity to result in a film that simply couldn't generate the necessary interest. It didn't help that its release date in April 2022 also put Morbius up against crowdpleaser franchise films like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, both of which outperformed the ill-fated vampire antihero. To this day, Morbius remains an infamous blunder on Sony's part.

3 Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

$506,863,592

Picking up where Tom Hardy's sweaty, confused Eddie Brock left off in the first Venom film to kick off Sony's latest Spider-Man universe, Venom: Let There Be Carnage has been one of the franchise's better-performing entries. Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, having somewhat made peace with his relationship to the unstable alien symbiote Venom. This time around, the duo have to face off against a new threat, the serial killer Cletus Kasady, who bonds with Venom's progeny, the even more insatiably violent Carnage.

The Venom sequel wasn't able to escape the shadow of its predecessor at the box office, but wasn't altogether a disappointment for Sony. The film ended its worldwide theatrical release with a worldwide haul of $506,863,592. With a budget of 110 million dollars, Venom: Let There Be Carnage was a satisfying, if not ideal, take for Sony. It seems as though the excitement for Carnage's first live-action movie appearance was enough to pique the interest of enough Spider-Man fans.

The box office performance for Venom: Let There Be Carnage was commendable considering its release in the tail end of the pandemic. Releasing alongside the family-friendly animated movie The Addams Family 2 and the Sopranos prequel crime drama The Many Saints of Newark, Venom: Let There Be Carnage had little standing in its way in of high-profile releases. Reviews for the film were uneven, with some returning viewers enjoying it more than the first Venom and others thinking of it as a step down in quality.

2 Venom (2018)

$856,085,161

The film slowly shifts the character into more of an antihero

As of the time of writing, Sony's most successful entry in its latest iteration of Spider-Man's New York City has been none other than its first. Venom re-introduces audiences to the lethal protector, not seen in theaters since Sam Raimi's infamous Spider-Man 3, pairing him up with Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock, a failed reporter in way over his head. While the parasitic symbiote Venom begins the film as an antagonistic presence, the film slowly shifts the character into more of an antihero, taking on the fellow bonded pair of Carlton Drake and the symbiote Riot.

Venom was an unequivocal success for Sony, making $213,515,506 domestically and $642,569,645 worldwide on a budget hovering around 110 million dollars. Venom was even able to set some impressive records, being the seventh-highest opening for a Sony film ever and taking home the crown of the best Columbus Day box office take. While the film's critical reception didn't match the numbers it was putting up, Tom Hardy's chemistry with himself in the dual-role of Venom and Eddie Brock made enough of an impression for the film to earn back its budget and then some.

Venom was able to dominate the box office during its October release in 2018, with its biggest competition being A Star Is Born and the reboot of John Carpenter's horror classic Halloween. Curiously, Venom was particularly popular in China, being Sony's highest-grossing Chinese release by far, and only lagging behind Avengers: Infinity War as the most popular superhero film released in the region ever. Without the success of Venom, it's safe to say that Sony's new franchise wouldn't have come as far as it already did.

1 Predicting Venom: The Last Dance & Kraven The Hunter's Box Office Performance

The two films' box office results are uncertain

The next two films from Spider-Man: No Way Home. Either way, the precarious position the Sony Spider-man universe have found themselves in following the back-to-back failures of Morbius and Madame Web means a lot is riding on both movies.

Unfortunately, Kraven The Hunter is unlikely to prove to be a breakout success for Sony. In a world where superhero movies have become increasingly common, the teaser trailer for Kraven The Hunter wasn't able to summon much enthusiasm with its bleak tone, and the R-rating, unprecedented territory for a Sony film, will likely further alienate a decent portion of its already slim audience. On a budget slightly higher than that of Madame Web's, the Aaron Taylor-Johnson star vehicle can likely expect a similarly unimpressive box office take somewhere between 100 and 150 million dollars.

On the other hand, Venom: The Last Dance may be able to count on the increase in positive critical reception from Venom to Venom: Let There Be Carnage, drafting another take on the proven formula of Eddie and Venom's buddy-cop chemistry. Still, the undeniable truth is that each successive film in the Sony Spider-Man spin-off universe has been released with poorer numbers than the last. Venom: The Last Dance is likely to raise around 300 to 400 million dollars domestically, possibly ending Sony's most recent attempt at a Spider-Man universe.

Source: Box Office Mojo