The Spider-Man spinoff got off to a disastrous start in North American theaters this weekend.
The movie starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson earned only $11 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, making it one of the worst openings for a Marvel-adjacent property. Its box office take was even less than the film
The weekend's other major studio release was Warner Bros.鈥� animated which made $4.6 million. Made for about $30 million, the movie is set 183 years before the events of 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings鈥� films and was fast-tracked to ensure New Line did not lose the rights to Tolkien鈥檚 novels. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have been working on future live-action films for the franchise.
Meanwhile, the top of the charts again belonged to and
鈥淢oana鈥� added $26.6 million to its domestic total in its third weekend and $57.2 million internationally, bringing its global tally to $717 million. It's now the fourth highest grossing film of the year, surpassing 鈥淒une: Part Two."
鈥淲icked,鈥� which is in its fourth weekend, brought in another $22.5 million to take second place. The Universal musical has made over $359 million domestically and over $500 million worldwide.
鈥淕ladiator II鈥� also made $7.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $145.9 million in four weeks.
鈥淜raven the Hunter鈥� is the latest misfire from Sony in its attempt to mine the Spider-Man universe for spin-off franchises without the lucrative web slinger himself. 鈥淜raven鈥� joins 鈥淢adame Web鈥� and 鈥淢orbius鈥� in franchise additions that fell flat with both audiences and critics. The one exception on this rollercoaster journey has been the trilogy, which has made over $1.8 billion worldwide.
The R-rated 鈥淜raven the Hunter鈥� was directed by J.C. Chandor and faced a number of delays, partly due to the Hollywood strikes. It was shot nearly three years ago and originally slated to hit theaters in January 2023. The film cost a reported $110 million to produce and was co-financed by TSG. Internationally, it made $15 million, but its potential for longevity appears limited: It currently carries a 15% 鈥渇resh鈥� rating on Rotten Tomatoes and got a C grade on CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not always a guarantee that you鈥檒l be able to connect with audiences when you have a spinoff character," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. 鈥淕eneral audiences seem to want to know exactly what they鈥檙e getting.鈥�
Several awards contenders opened in limited release over the weekend, including Paramount鈥檚 about ABC's coverage of the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. Amazon MGM and Orion's based on Colson Whitehead鈥檚 Pulitzer-winner about an abusive reform school in Florida, opened in two theaters in New York. It averaged $30,422 per screen and will be expanding to Los Angeles before going nationwide in the coming weeks.
Some big hitters are on the way in the home stretch of the 2024 box office. 鈥淢ufasa鈥� and 鈥淪onic the Hedgehog 3鈥� will hit in the coming weeks along with a bevy of arthouse and adult releases like 鈥淏abygirl,鈥� 鈥淣osferatu鈥� and 鈥淎 Complete Unknown."
The box office has seen a dramatic recovery since June, when it was down nearly 28% from the previous year. The deficit now stands at 4.8%.
Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
