In an interview with the Los Angeles Times Looking back on his seven years at the helm of Sony Pictures, outgoing CEO Tony Vinciquerra talks about the studio’s successes during his tenure—as well as its disappointments. That includes the last film to be released while he was the boss: Kraven the Hunter.

the Spider-Man villain spin-off starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson was “probably the worst launch we’ve had in 7 1/2 years (I’m with Sony), so it didn’t do well, which I still don’t understand, because the film wasn’t a bad film,” he said.

In a follow-up question, Vinciquerra was asked more about Requirements—as well as another notable, Spidey-adjacent 2024 release: Madame Web.

“Let’s just touch it Madame Web for a while,” he said. “Madame Web underperformed in theaters because it was nailed by the press. It’s not a bad film, and it’s doing well on Netflix.

He continued, pinning the blame on the press Madame Webfailure and so on. “For some reason, the press decided they didn’t want us to make these films The requirements and Madame Weband the critics just destroyed them. They also do it in POISONbut the audience loved it POISON and made POISON a big hit. These are not horror films. The critics in the press just destroyed them, for some reason.

(Morbiusreleased in 2022, nothing mentioned.)

On rotten tomatoes, Kraven the Hunter has a 15% “Tomatometer” rating from critics; Fans of the film gave it a 73% on the “Popcornmeter” scale. Madame WebThe rankings are worse (11% from critics; 55% from fans); while the latest POISON movie, Venom: The Last Dancethere was the most agreement between critics and listeners (41% vs 81%).

However, just because fans who vote on Rotten Tomatoes may have positive feelings, that doesn’t necessarily translate into box office gold. Most recently, Kraven the Hunteras Vinciquerra himself admits, didn’t leave much of a mark at the box office.

The outgoing CEO may not have to worry about this, but he certainly knows that the whole “Spider-Man spin-off” strategy, which Sony embraced so much in the beginning, will have to be re-examined going forward. “I think we have to rethink it, just because it’s a snakebite,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “If we put one more, it will be destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is.”

Spider-Man 4at least, is on the horizon: Tom Holland returns as the web-slinger in a film directed by Dustin Daniel Cretton arriving on July 24, 2026.

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