This past weekend, my social media was full of people who went to see Madame Web and love-hated every minute of it. The film is apparently completely terrible, poorly written, poorly acted, weird and likely another nail in the coffin for superhero films. On the other hand, it might become a camp classic, because it’s so stupid and terrible that people can’t even believe it was made. Anyway, after Madame Web bombed in its opening weekend (it only made $15.4 million domestically), the mood at Sony is quite glum.
The trailer buzz was worrisome, advance ticket sales anemic. Then last week, the critic reviews for Madame Web were posted, and they stung deepest of all — Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff received the lowest average Rotten Tomatoes score (13 percent) of any major superhero film in nearly a decade. “On Wednesday night, you could actually watch advance purchase sales declining in real time as buyers were refunding their tickets,” marvels a major theatrical chain insider. “It really says something when you’d rather have Shazam! 2 numbers.”
It marked one of the lowest starts in Hollywood history for a film based on a Marvel character. Domestic box office for the first six days in North America was just $26.2 million after opening midweek on Valentine’s Day. International tallied $25.7 million from 61 markets. Even the fan-friendly CinemaScore grade was poor (C+ — extremely low for a superhero title).
Like DC and the once-unstoppable Marvel, Sony is now finding itself in under the gun to reevaluate how it makes comic book movies. Sony’s previous Spider-Man universe movie — 2022’s Morbius — was a critical bust and much-maligned by fanboys online, but at least it managed to earn $170 million worldwide. There’s no such hope for Madame Web. Plus, the feature’s collapse doesn’t just impact this film, but a new potential franchise led by star Dakota Johnson that Sony had hoped to spin out (spoiler alert: her character is connected to Peter Parker, whose birth is documented in the movie).
The film introduced a trio of supporting characters (played by Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor and Sydney Sweeney — now one of the top stars her age). It set up a future in which the three could have become a team of Spider-Women under the guiding eye of Johnson’s Cassie Webb. Now that’s not going to happen. “We’re not going to see another Madame Web movie for another decade-plus,” quipped one industry veteran. “It failed. Sony tried to make a movie that was a different type of superhero movie.”
“I don’t know if women are enough to carry the box office here,” one veteran studio source outside of Sony says. Indeed, males make up 65 percent to 70 percent of the superhero audience in North America. In the case of Madame Web, the percentage of female viewers was still only 46 percent.
“We are in transition when it comes to superhero movies,” notes the insider. “I don’t know how big that transition is or what the other side looks like. It may be fewer movies, but bigger brands. Sony is willing to take some risk but also wants home runs — that’s good. And if [Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man Universe title] Kraven is a gigantic hit, the narrative could be completely different. So it’s too early to know the outcome.”
The “women didn’t carry the box office” stuff is a pointed reference to Sony’s attempts to shake up the marketing and really sell Madame Web to women and girls. It wasn’t enough because, from the looks of it, Madame Web is simply a bad movie. One of the most pointed criticisms I saw (and it was backed up by Dakota Johnson’s interviews) was that the script had the feel of something half-written by AI and half-written by committee. Anyway, there would have never been a second Madame Web movie anyway because Dakota f–king hated this experience and she really does not want to do it again.
In case you’re wondering about the money, THR says that Sony spent “in the low $100 million range” on Madame Web. Do you see it on screen? I’m really asking. From what I’ve seen and heard, the film looks cheap as hell.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images. Posters courtesy of Sony.