Posted in: Movies, Sony | Tagged: kraven the hunter, Madame Web, venom: the last dance

Sony CEO Blames The Press For Madame Web & Kraven Box Office Failures

Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra largely blames the press and critics for Madame Web's and Kraven the Hunter's underperformance.

To say that the Marvel side of Sony Pictures had a bit of a rough year might be an understatement. The studio had three different attempts to really sell the concept of a Spider-Man-less Marvel universe to the public, but they could not pull it off. Both Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter failed both critically and commercially and couldn't reignite enthusiasm. Venom: The Last Dance did better, but it was a very definitive ending instead of a real jumping-off point and was heavily relying on a fanbase that, while devoted, might not return for a movie without this version of Venom and this version of Eddie Brock. It's been a rather specular slow-motion trainwreck that started in February and came to a head earlier this month. Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra is stepping down early next month and spoke to the LA Times about his time at the company. They were talking about the studio's performance this year, and Vinciquerra mentioned that Kraven the Hunter is one of the worst launches in seven and a half years. That looped back to Madame Web also underperforming and Vinciquerra was quick to defend both films and Venom.

"Let's just touch on Madame Web for a moment," Vinciquerra replied. "Madame Web underperformed in the theaters because the press just crucified it. 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. They also did it with Venom, but the audience loved Venom and made Venom a massive hit. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason."

All of us critics will wield the great power we apparently have with great responsibility. In reality, Vinciquerra destroyed his own argument while trying to defend Madame Web and Kraven. The first Venom movie got critically mauled, not as bad as Madame Web or Kraven, but pretty bad, and it did excellent at the box office. The other two films did a little better critically and still performed very well at the box office. If the audience is there, engaged, and they want to see the movie, they could not give less of a shit what I or any other critic has to say. Many movies get bad reviews every year and make a ton of money. These two films didn't connect with the public.

Madame Web was always going to be a hard sell, and they didn't sell it well. Sony apparently forgot Kraven was coming out in December because they hardly marketed the thing at all. If you don't market a film, they tend not to make money, even more so when you're fighting for eyes at the box office during one of the busiest times of the year. When Vinciquerra was asked if they needed to re-evaluate the Sony-Marvel Universe, he said they did, but once again, he passed all the blame on the critics. "I do think we need to rethink it, just because it's snake-bitten. If we put another one out, it's going to get destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is," he said. If you make a movie that connects with the audience, they will show up, no matter how good or bad it is.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!