Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Spider-Man spin-off falters

Spider-Man spinoff Kraven the Hunter has got off to a disastrous start in North American cinemas at the weekend.

The movie starring English actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson earned only $11 million (£8.7 million), according to studio estimates, making it one of the worst openings for a Marvel-adjacent property.

The action adventure, which focuses on Kraven's back story, is the latest misfire from Sony in its attempt to mine the Spider-Man universe for spin-off franchises without the lucrative web-slinger himself.

Kraven joins Madame Web and Morbius in franchise attempts that have fallen flat with audiences and critics.

The one exception has been the Venom trilogy, which has made over $1.8 billion worldwide.

Taylor-Johnson plays the title character Sergei Kravinoff, opposite Ariana deBose and Russell Crowe.

He is best known for his portrayal of the title character in Kick-Ass and its 2013 sequel.

"It's not always a guarantee that you'll be able to connect with audiences when you have a spinoff character," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for media measurement and analytics company Comscore.

"General audiences seem to want to know exactly what they're getting."

Meanwhile, the top of the charts again belonged to Moana 2 and Wicked.