Marvel movies have mostly been box office hits ever since the start of the MCU. However, both in and out of the shared universe, there have been films focused on Marvel characters that have failed, and one of them ended a Spider-Man era. Sure, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America performances led to some of the best Marvel movies.
The actors elevated the status of those characters, but they can’t compare to the level of popularity of Sony’s Spider-Man movies. Peter Parker is the most popular Marvel hero of all, with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies, as well as Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s, being hits. That said, not everything connected to the hero works, and Sony has learned its lesson the hard way.
Kraven The Hunter Officially Ended Sony’s Spider-Man Movie Franchise
Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is one of the most divisive superhero franchises of all time. On the one hand, Tom Hardy’s Venom movies were received well by Marvel fans, also performing positively at the box office. On the other hand, everything else the franchise tried to do did not work. Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter were panned by critics and viewers alike.
All three of those movies became box office bombs, and even Hardy’s Venom franchise saw diminishing returns with every new release, going from Venom’s worldwide total of $856.1 million to Venom: The Last Dance’s $478.9 million. The latest movie to be released in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe was Kraven the Hunter, which arrived in theaters on December 13, 2024.
Related
Marvel’s $61M Box Office Flop’s R-Rated Action Scenes Could Be Surpassed By An Upcoming Movie
A movie for a Marvel character that was a box office flop has some of the best superhero action scenes, but this upcoming film could top them.
The Aaron Taylor-Johnson superhero movie grossed an unimpressive $61.8 million. That sum looks even worse when compared to its $110 million budget. That means Kraven the Hunter lost the studio a sizable sum, as the SSU film needed to land in the $220 million to $275 million range just to break even. After the movie’s failure, no new SSU entries were announced.
The franchise has since been confirmed as extinct. Recently, Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman revealed on Matt Belloni’s podcast, The Town, that Sony’s Spider-Man Universe would be getting a “fresh reboot” with “new people.” Not having a version of Spider-Man in the SSU severely harmed the franchise, and Kraven the Hunter’s failure hammered home that using Spider-Man villains and related characters would not cut it.
Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Returns In The MCU This Summer
Tom Holland filming Spider-Man: Brand New Day
While Sony’s Spider-Man Universe might be dead for the time being, the hero’s main franchise remains very much alive. Sony has had a much better going when working with Marvel Studios to develop the best possible stories for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and characters from his corner of the franchise. 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home nearly met the $2 billion mark, and would have done so with a China release.
After a few years dormant, Holland’s Peter Parker is finally returning to the big screen in an exciting way in 2026. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as its title suggests, is being touted as a fresh new chapter for Peter’s MCU story. After a huge multiversal event, the film takes Spider-Man back to basics with a street-level story and a fitting roster of characters.
Related
Spider-Man: Brand New Day unites the hero with the Punisher and the Hulk, but a 2026 Marvel release does so before it, and the story is perfect.
Keeping in line with that street-level theme, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will see the hero interact with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher for the first time and go up against villains like Michael Mando’s Scorpion and Marvin Jones III’s Tombstone. Additionally, the movie will have many surprises, such as the role Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk plays and who Sadie Sink is playing — the hot rumor is X-Men’s Jean Grey.
When Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, Sony will rest easy knowing it has another likely $1 billion hit on the way. Tom Holland could also play Spider-Man twice in 2026. While the actor has not yet been confirmed to appear in December’s Avengers: Doomsday, Spider-Man is too big a character not to be there, right? Peter’s chances of a surprise appearance are good.
The Future Of Sony’s Spider-Man Movie Franchise Explained
Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Tom Holland’s bright future as Spider-Man does not appear to include any involvement with whatever Sony is planning for its standalone franchise. However, it seems like the studio understood the fans’ message about how the SSU not having a Spider-Man ultimately broke it. Sony is now firmly moving forward with a different strategy for its Spidey movies that focuses on what the fans want to see.
After Miles Morales’ animated Spider-Verse trilogy ends in 2027 with Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, Sony has three Spider-Man animated movies in the works. Two of them come as spinoffs of the popular Spider-Verse franchise, focusing on Spider-Gwen and Spider-Punk, both of which are fan-favorites. The other is an animated Venom movie, focusing on the only successful franchise in the SSU, and Tom Hardy is involved in some form.
Related
Spider-Man’s First R-Rated Movie Is The Closest It Has Ever Been
The first R-rated Spider-Man movie in history is now the closest it has ever been after a new franchise update that could change the hero forever.
As for live-action Spider-Man-related movies in a new version of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe or another franchise, the studio has not yet revealed any plans of doing so. However, Tom Rothman’s comments suggest they could be on the way. For now, Sony is focusing on a Spider-Man variant, just like it is doing in animation, for its next standalone live-action story.
However, it will come in the form of a TV show, with Nicolas Cage playing Ben Reilly, aka Spider-Man Noir, in Prime Video’s upcoming Spider-Noir. The superhero series has a distinct style and tone that separate it from all other live-action Spider-Man releases so far.
That is what the rebooted SSU needs, and if Sony keeps heading down that path, the studio’s next era of Spider-Man releases will be better than the one that ended with Kraven the Hunter.
Release Date
December 13, 2024
Runtime
127 Minutes
Director
J.C. Chandor