Sony Pictures CEO Says ‘Madame Web’ Flopped ‘Because the Press Crucified It’: Our Marvel Movies ‘Are Not Terrible Films. They Were Destroyed by Critics’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra recently told the Los Angeles Times that “Kraven the Hunter” is “probably the worst launch we had” in the nearly eight years he’s been at the studio, adding: “I still don’t understand, because the film is not a bad film.” “Kraven” opened in theaters Dec.

13 to a paltry $11 million, the lowest debut yet for a Sony-released Marvel movie. The movie’s current domestic box office total stands at just $18 million, while its global haul is $43 million.

These are more or less catastrophic results for a superhero movie and cap off a lackluster year for Sony comic book movies after “Madame Web” flopped with $100 million worldwide and “Venom: The Last Dance” became the franchise’s lowest-grossing entry. “Let’s just touch on ‘Madame Web’ for a moment,” Vinciquerra said. “‘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.