A new superhero movie from the broader “Spider-Man” universe is not luring in a lot of fans on its opening weekend. And the filmed and TV’d to death “Lord of the Rings” has gone about as far as Warner Bros/New Line’s intellectual property rights can take it.

That’s the big message from this mid-December box office weekend.

“Kraven the Hunter,” starring “Kick-Ass” alumnus Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Ariana DeBose and directed by J.C. Chandor (“All is Lost,” “Triple Frontier”) opened to a tepid $11 million or so, per Variety.  That’s terrible for a comic book film, even an outside-the-Marvel-mainstream one. That take is well below even the most downbeat projections.

Poor reviews didn’t kill the “Venom” movies, but they never help, and “Kraven” is drowning in them.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” may have been the outlier to end all outliers, or even a last hurrah. But if you aren’t looking at an exhausted cinema-dominating genre, you must be wearing “Spiderverse” glasses. “Morbius,” “Madame Web” and a world not exactly chomping at the bit for a mid winter “Captain America” revival? Only the most proven star-driven franchises are bringing in the faithful, who have/streaming options aplenty to sate their superhero appetites.

Director Kenji Kamiyama comes from the “Ghost in the Shell/Cyborg” and “Blade Runner” corner of anime — TV series which are even more under-animated than most big screen anime. “Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” is a Tolkien “inspired” story and script, and might have been the future of Middle Earth had this cheaper-to-make knockoff made money.

The budget figures being tossed about for this are as low as $4 million (low, even for TV anime cheap) and as high as $30 million. But with versions of “Rings” on TV and the Peter Jackson films readily available, nobody is interested in more “Rohirrim.” A $4.6 million opening weekend underscores that.

Warner Brothers is gambling on big Tolkien based titles due out in 2026. Uh oh.

Reviews for this one aren’t making anybody over 40 forget the striking Ralph Bakshi animated “Rings” from the last millennium.

“Moana 2” will roll to another weekend win, pulling in $26.6 million.

“Wicked: Part 1” does better when the kids are in school during the week, and still leads “Moana 2” by $20 million or so in domestic box office take. But it loses ground every weekend, on track to earn $22.5 million by midnight Sunday.

The films are polished, money-minting holiday spectacles, pretty much evenly matched, as far as entertainment value and bloated if somewhat joyless overkill in their execution.

The Christmas holidays may let “Moana” surpass the biggest musical hit modern Hollywood has ever produced. But “Wicked” could be the last blockbuster standing by Jan. 1.

“Gladiator II” keeps going about its business, sticking around the Top Five, with another $7.8 million pushing it towards $150 million domestically.

“Red One” may nudge “War of the Roherrim” out of the top five.

“Pushpa — The Rule 2” stays in the top ten.

The  “Interstellar” re release, the Indian action pic “Pushpa 2” and “Best Christmas Pageant Ever” are on the second film,  and amazingly, “Queer” pushes “Y2K”  out of  the top ten.