Usually when you hear the news that a movie has been delayed, it’s because there have been problems. Maybe there were script issues. For a long time, delays in the film industry were caused by COVID, and also by labor strikes. But the producer of the upcoming Spider-Man spinoff movie Kraven the Hunter has a new reason as to why the film was recently delayed until December. And despite the fact that it seems a little fishy, I actually believe him.
Matt Tolmach has been producing Spider-Man movies since Sami Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie at Sony. He has been responsible for the best Spider-Man films… and some of the ones that fans would choose to forget. While promoting the release of his upcoming AppleTV+ show Dark Matter, Tolmach spoke to Collider about the move for Kraven the Hunter from August to December, thereby putting it into theaters after Venom: The Last Dance. And Tolmach took a positive spin on the shift, explaining:
Kraven moved to Christmas because we’re excited about it and Christmas is the best release period there is, when you get people with time to go back to the movies over and over again. That was a real reflection of how the studio felt about the movie. We’re really excited. But that’s a great move that reflects just the feeling about the movie.
Now, I’m going to push back on the idea that audiences are going to want to see Kraven the Hunter “over and over again,” but given the failure of Madame Web, Sony will likely be happy if people pay to see the Aaron Taylor Johnson movie once! The reason why I think Matt Tolmach is telling the truth (and not sugar coating a turd) is the fact that the Hollywood slate used to be filled with dumping grounds – places that you could hide a bad movie. And December never was considered one of those voids. Tolmach is correct that audiences start looking for better titles starting around Thanksgiving. And mainstream crowds are conditioned to look for awards contenders throughout December.
I’m not saying that Kraven the Hunter is going to contend for Oscars. It’s not. But if Sony were trying to hide the film, they likely wouldn’t drop it into a December slot. They’d push it just a little bit farther, into January, when audiences have shown a tendency to stay home. Kraven the Hunter might actually be the counterprogramming to the Oscar hopefuls that audiences are looking for. Also, a December opening worked very well for Spider-Man: No Way Home, which ended its theatrical run with $1.9 billion in global tickets sold.
Here’s the trailer for Kraven the Hunter. It actually looks good:
Make sure that you are using our guide to upcoming 2024 movies to stay on top of that Sony spinoff thriller, and everything else that’s coming to the movies in the coming months.