Summary
- Madame Web broke a 22-year-old Sony Spider-Man box office record with $25.8 million in its six-day opening.
- Despite being part of Sony's Spider-Man universe, Madame Web had the worst box office opening in its history.
- Madame Web's opening gross even fell below the critically panned Morbius' $39 million opening.
Madame Web breaks a 22-year-old Sony Spider-Man box office record during its 6-day opening. Since the release of 2002's Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire, the Sony Spider-Man universe (SSU) has enjoyed a number of lucrative openings, including a $260.1 million domestic opening weekend gross for Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. Despite being part of the SSU, Madame Web did not generate the same level of anticipation and excitement that usually exists for movies related to the popular superhero.
According to Madame Web's box office is now officially has the worst opening in the history of the SSU, even below the critically panned Morbius' 3-day opening gross of $39 million. For a full comparison of SSU movies, check out the table below:
Title |
Domestic Opening Weekend |
|---|---|
Spider-Man: No Way Home |
$260.1 million |
Spider-Man 3 |
$151.1 million |
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse |
$120.6 million |
Spider-Man: Homecoming |
$117 million |
Spider-Man (2002) |
$114.8 million |
Spider-Man: Far from Home |
$92.5 million |
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 |
$91.6 million |
Venom: Let There Be Carnage |
$90 million |
Spider-Man 2 |
$88.1 million |
Venom |
$80.2 million |
The Amazing Spider-Man |
$62 million |
Morbius |
$39 million |
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse |
$35.3 million |
Madame Web |
$17.6 million |
Why Madame Web Bombed At The Box Office
Even before Madame Web was released in theaters, the new Sony film seemed poised to perform poorly, largely due to a questionable marketing campaign. Madame Web's first trailer became known for the cringeworthy line, "He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders, right before she died," which was quickly mocked and led to countless memes and jokes for a movie that hadn't even been released yet. This line is not spoken even in the actual movie, but the damage was already done in the leadup to it.
To make matters worse, Madame Web's star, Dakota Johnson, seemed generally disinterested and dissatisfied with the film during the press tour, with Johnson revealing "drastic changes" from Madame Web's original story pitched to her, only days before the movie hit theaters. Despite these red flags, one of the few elements in the marketing that built excitement were the glimpses of the various Spider-Women in their distinct costumes. Those looking forward to this aspect of the movie were left disappointed as these characters only wear their costumes in visions of the future, making the marketing feel misleading.
Some films can bounce back from a poor opening box office with good reviews and good word of mouth, but that is unlikely to happen for Madame Web, which currently holds a 13% critical score and 54% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which previously had the SSU's lowest opening gross, went on to earn $384.3 million worldwide due to its stellar critical and audience reception. Unfortunately, Madame Web is not on track for a similar trajectory, and its poor performance means a Madame Web 2 with the Spider-Women in costume will probably not happen now.
Source: Variety
