Female power took over the box office this weekend as Deadline explains that women turned out in their droves yet again for female-led movies Wicked and Moana 2, both of which have had stellar weekends at the North American box office.
However, not even Aaron Taylor-Johnson's abs were enough to draw them to Sony's latest critical and commercial flop, Kraven the Hunter. That movie's opening weekend estimates continue to plummet, with an $11 million opening looking likely (rival studios believe it could be even lower at $10.4 million, though we're hearing a single-digit debut is possible).
With a reported $110 million budget, this is a disaster for Sony and a real wake-up call for a studio that's ignored fans and continued to develop bad Marvel movies like Morbius and Madame Web.
The latter received an overwhelmingly negative response back in February and, outside of the ridicule, left many fans wondering how it could all go so wrong. Like Kraven the Hunter, there were signs of major post-production changes courtesy of some atrocious ADR.
According to the trade, "The reason why Madame Web was so disjointed was because the studio cut several pages from the screenplay before the S.J. Clarkson-directed female Spidey movie went into production, causing, you got it, act two and three problems."
Morbius' final act was also completely reshot and it appears that Sony is dropping the ball at the script stage and then trying in vain to fix these movies with sweeping changes down the line.
This report adds, "If Kevin Feige can hold off a Blade reboot from becoming reality until it’s in commercial shape, Sony, you can do the same with all your Marvel properties. 'Sony has lost Marvel fans,' one razor sharp motion picture marketing source told me recently."
In other news, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has also underperformed with a $5 million opening weekend. On the plus side, it received a B CinemaScore and only cost $30 million to produce.
Here's the weekend's projected Top 10:
1) Moana 2 - $26.6 million, Total $337.5 million
2) Wicked - $22.3 million, Total $358.8 million
3) Kraven the Hunter - $11 million - $12 million
4) Gladiator II - $7.8 million, Total $145.9 million
5) Red One - $5 million, Total $93.2 million
6) The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim - $5 million
7) Interstellar (Rerelease) - $3.15 million, Total $11.6 million
8) Pushpa 2: The Rule - $1.5 million, Total $13 million
9) Best Christmas Pageant Ever - $1.35 million, Total $36.6 million
10) Y2K - $741,0000, Total $3.7 million