"These are not terrible films" - Sony Pictures' CEO just doesn't get why nobody wanted to watch Spider-Man films that don't have Spider-Man in them
The reason was that the films were bad, Tony! Venom was a hit because he's a prominent Spider-Man character, Tony! And also each of its sequels did worse than the previous one at the box office, because all the other Sony Spider-Man-less Spider-Man films were received so poorly! Come on!