The Real Reason Behind Madame Web's Shocking Flop: Can Sony's Spider-Man Universe Bounce Back?

Highlights

• Madame Web's box office failure highlights the importance of a solid script and direction for superhero movies.
• Sony's decision to alter the well-established plot of Madame Web may have contributed to the film's downfall.
• The negative reception of Madame Web could have long-lasting effects on future Sony Spider-Man Universe projects.

For a while, it seemed Hollywood had found a magical, failproof formula: make a superhero movie on a $100 million to $200 million budget, and net at least $500 million at the box office.

If producers were lucky enough and created the right amount of buzz, it appeared they could always earn a billion dollars, easily.

But Madame Web may have broken this template, perhaps showing film producers that just a superhero setup is not enough; these projects would likely benefit from a better script.

In-depth story structure and better direction are imperative for any successful movie. Marvel and DC are doing a phenomenal job in this regard, producing billion-dollar movies one after another.

But that doesn't mean they aren't prone to the occasional failure — as they have made some mistakes in the past, with underperformers like Elektra, The Punisher, Generation X, and Inhuman.

Their "success conversion ratio" is perhaps better these days, and studios may have learned from past mistakes. But continuous missteps in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) are the sole reason for its looming downfall.

Sony was confident about Madame Web's success — much like they were confident about Morbius. Although Morbius was produced on an estimated $83 million budget, it earned $167.5 million at the box office.

Not an incredible feat by any Hollywood measure, but at least fans liked it, and gave it a decent 71 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 5.2 rating on IMDb. Critics, however, lamented the movie's pacing, story structure, and ostensibly poor editing.

But to date, Madame Web has suffered from even less favorable numbers, with a 12 percent "critics score" and a 57 percent "audience score" on Rotten Tomatoes, and a humiliating 3.8 rating on IMDb.

Today, let's examine how Madame Web – and, specifically, the Sony Spider-Man Universe – reached its lowest point.

What is the real reason behind SSU's astounding failure, one that few seemed to expect? And how could Madame Web's box office numbers impact Sony's upcoming Spider-Man projects?

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Madame Web's Massive Box Office Disappointment

Madame Web was released on Wednesday, February 14th – Valentine's Day.

Typically, movies are released on Fridays (due to the weekend), but due to Valentine's Day, Madame Web was released on a Wednesday — which meant the movie had a five-day opening week run.

On that Wednesday, the movie earned $6.05 million, which initially ushered in hopes that the movie would earn more when the weekend rolled around.

No eyebrows were raised when Madame Web earned a scant $2.1 million on Thursday, February 15th, because the "big day" at the box office was still to come: the official opening weekend, when Madame Web's box office numbers were anticipated to be strong.

On Friday, February 16th – when the movie earned just $4.2 million – both critics' voices and superhero film fans' anger registered loud and clear.

Madame Web went on to earn just $6.4 and $4.6 million respectively, on the most important days (Saturday and Sunday) of its opening week.

It only managed to earn $15.3 million during its opening week weekend, and went on to add a total of just $23.5 million in the first week.

But the second week was a complete disaster: Madame Web earned a mere $6 million for the entire weekend, and grossed only $77 million, $3 million short of the film's budget.

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The Real Reason Behind Madame Web's Box Office Failure

As it stands today, there are a great many jibes and memes hurling insults at Madame Web; some are accurate, and others are not.

Now, simple movie criticism is evolving into truly bizarre territory.

There is a cultural debate going on, and Madame Web detractors are trying to frame this failure as "anti-woke" — alleging that yet another female-led superhero movie had flopped, and rejoicing at the prospect of female superhero films failing.

On February 22nd, the New York Times examined Madame Web's reception on the internet, in an article titled "The Internet Is Obsessed With ‘Madame Web.’ The Box Office? Well … "

According to the Times, Madame Web backlash started well before it debuted, and a trailer released in November seemed to herald a chilly box office reception:

"'Madame Web' started functioning as an online punching bag pretty much the moment its trailer was released in November. A line of clunky exposition delivered in monotone by Ms. Johnson became a meme: 'He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died.' (The line did not end up in the movie.)"

Some are directing their ire at Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, predictably asserting that the cast's women are the reason Madame Web's box office failure — which is completely outlandish.

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One big reason for Madame Web's box office failure is far simpler: the film's writers changed the basic plot of Madame Web, who was already a well-established character in Marvel Comics and its associated universe.

Madame Web was an elderly, blind clairvoyant, but the movie's creators sought to give the character of Madame Web a new image.

The absence of the first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, also angered fans, because she was the character most associated with Spider-Man's female counterpart. In her stead, the studio introduced three new "Spider-Women."

A "wrong timeline" is another likely cause for the movie's plot complications; Madame Web is set 18 to 20 years before Spider-Man's appearance, so Madame Web ought to be around 50 years old.

Creators altered the concept of how Spider-Man became Spider-Man. Its "Spider-Women" were protected by Madame Web, their origin story is absent, and their characters were somewhat under-developed.

A confusing and frail plot is yet another major reason Madame Web hasn't seen success. But audiences have flocked in droves to myriad movies with weaker plots than this, and those films achieved blockbuster status.

Of course, their dialogue and adaptation from the comic source material (picturization) mesmerized audiences. Meanwhile, the picturization for Madame Web was serviceable, but certainly not outstanding.

Moreover, Madame Web's dialogue was plain absurd. A prominent example of that occurs when Madame Web finally dons her superhero costume.

At the end of the film, the character says: "You know the best thing about the future? It hasn't happened yet" — which made little sense, and became a final moment of cringe before moviegoers left the theater.

One more Madame Web meme is circulating, regarding the film's writing:

The above-quoted New York Times article also made frequent mention of criticism of Madame Web's dialogue:

"The reviews [for Madame Web] were lousy, with critics calling the movie 'a genuine Chernobyl-level disaster' that is 'full of bad dialogue delivered badly.' The box office numbers were somehow worse, landing 'Madame Web' among the lowest ticket sales ever for a superhero movie."

Any other critiques are moot in contrast: Madame Web flopped because of its baffling plot, and nonsensical lines delivered at a crucial part of the film.

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How Madame Web Might Harm Upcoming Sony Spider-Man Universe Projects

One immediate problem is fairly obvious – moviegoers will not forget Madame Web anytime soon.

Two weeks after its release, fans are still making Madame Web memes and heavily criticizing it.

A negative image of Sony's Spider-Man franchise has been established — and to salvage it, Sony would have to follow with a much stronger entry.

Another problem is that their next anticipated release is Kraven The Hunter, a trailer for which was released in 2023. SSU delayed its release date from October 6th (of last year) to August 30th 2024.

Delayed releases are typically perceived as a signal of poor confidence from the studio – and the order of release between the two films suggests Sony decided to drop Madame Web first, hinting that Kraven The Hunter was not strong enough to compete at the box office.

Perhaps they want to re-work Kraven The Hunter's script, for better or for worse. Time will tell, but Sony's expectations for Kraven the Hunter might be low, and this looks to be a worrisome situation for SSU.

Plus, Sony's Venom 3 is also slated for release in November of this year.

Venom has been their most successful project in the genre, as the first film bagged $856 million at the box office.

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But Venom: Let There Be Carnage saw less success (and profit) than its predecessor, bringing in a still-decent $506 million.

Both the plot and the dialogue of the second film were weaker than the first, and Venom's potential decline in popularity is another potential headache for the studio.

Ultimately, a question lingers: will Kraven The Hunter and Venom 3 be able to turn the tide, and help make the Sony Spider-Man Universe a successful franchise?

That question looms large after Madame Web's box office returns failed to meet expectations so spectacularly — and honestly, a hairpin turnaround seems highly unlikely in this situation.

But the SSU's spotty reputation has the potential for redemption; one successful movie after Madame Web could reverse the trend, and bolster the SSU's flagging reputation.

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