Madame Web - 2024

The debacle at the box office around Madame Web transcended the instance of just another superhero film flopping, instead it has become a kind of marker for a whole year of superhero flops that culminated in Madame Web's critical (and box office) drubbing. Reviews were harsh and merciless in some places in a way that would have not been possible a year earlier. The year of 2023 didn't start of with that kind of apprehension about superhero movies, but 2024 did. The expectation in 2023 was that films like Ant-Man Quantumania and The Flash were arriving into an environment that was particularly welcoming for big budgeted superhero movies with stars emblazoned all over the casting. But instead, Quantumania started a snowball of under whelming performance rolling down a hill that proceeded to pick up speed and crushed everything superhero in it's path, finally building up with the debris of all the other crashed movies of the year, landing squarely on the exceedingly low-expectations for Madame Web and the freedom of mainstream reviewers to simply reject the film in unkind ways, such as the Rolling Stone review which said, more or less, you heard Madame Web was bad? It's actually much worse.

The film does deserve a negative review, but in actual fact, it starts off reasonably well done, and the first half or so of the film is perfectly acceptable, and even, in some ways, unique in how it is handling its material. The cast is trying to do what it can to carry the tale forward, and in that first half we've got sometimes insightful moments of showing us how an EMT worker (Dakota Johnson) lives with saving lives and meeting disaster on the streets as simply part of her day to day job. It is in the latter half of the film that the efforts of director, editor and script starts descending into a messy and unintentionally funny (in places) movie.

"Madame Web Is Hilariously Short Of A Box Office Milestone, Adding Insult To Injury" – MSN /Film

Article laments (or is it mocking?) that Madame Web has stalled at $99,312,851 for international box office. The "milestone" it speaks of is the crossing of the $100 million dollar barrier. The film is a huge earnings disappointment, of course, for Sony and it's plans for an expanded franchise of Spider-Man related characters, but in the future whether it'll be said "It didn't even make a hundred million!" or "It just cleared a hundred-million!" is what's being decided now as it limps towards being pulled from theaters.

Dakota Johnson : I never want to make a film like Madame Web again – Total Film

The easiest way to understand that remark would be to say, yes, who wants to make a bomb? But elsewhere Johnson has complained that during the making of the much maligned Madame Web she saw creative decisions were being made by committee and the executives in production were trumping the actual filmmakers, that the film was being made by "algorithms."

Does the Madame Web fiasco mean change?

"Sony's Madame Web fiasco: The demise of a new franchise signals a studio's need for change"

Story at Desimartini

Madame Web hype gearing up: posters and pre-release tickets – Comicbookmovie

Current projections point to a $25 million opening weekend, a figure well below even Morbius (which debuted with $39 million). It's also a far cry from Venom's $80 million debut and Venom: Let There Be Carnage's $90 million haul.

Sony is reportedly unhappy with Dakota Johnson for "dragging" 'MADAME WEB' and not "taking any responsibility" when she admitted she hadn't seen the film

“Producers and Sony aren't laughing over Dakota's continued dragging of how she sees the fallout of Madame Web and how she… pic.twitter.com/wsXidhoHdC

— ScreenTime (@screentime) March 9, 2024

Madame Web at $92,394,699 for global box-office – Source: The-Numbers

The reported production budget on Madame Web is $80 million.

Madame Web cannot catch a break

"Madame Web Is a Low Point for Superhero Movies" – Yahoo - Reason

"Dakota Johnson's new 'Madame Web' movie is awful, but her Gucci premiere dress is perfection" – MSN USA Today

Madame Web "unravels" while Bob Marley film tops box office – NY Times

One Love landed in what has become a box office sweet spot — stories that feel both nostalgic and new — while the Spider-Man spinoff is another sign that the comics-character boom is over..."

The Madame Web reviews are coming in

"Madame Web is a love letter to the golden age of bad comic book movies" – The Verge

"Sony's Latest Live-Action Spider-Verse Experiment Doesn’t Know Why It Exists Either" – Cinema Blend

‘"Madame Web' Critic Reviews Are Brutal: "Hilariously Bad, Embarrassing Mess"" – Hollywood Reporter

"‘Madame Web’ Isn’t As Bad As You’ve Heard. It’s So Much Worse" – Rolling Stones

Madame Web

Sony release preview trailer for Madame Web starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney.

Adam Scott joins cast for Madame Web – Deadline

... In the comics, Madame Web is depicted as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis and thus was connected to a life-support system that looked like a spider web. Due to her age and medical condition, Madame Web never actively fought any villains. For that reason, sources have stressed it’s possible the project could turn into something else. Insiders say that due to her psychic sensory powers, she is essentially Sony’s version of Doctor Strange.

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Original page April 9, 2024