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

All of this to say, even if by some miracle “Madame Web” were able to find some money in the couch cushions and get past the $100 million milestone, it would be a mostly meaningless one so far as the bottom line is concerned. This movie’s fate has long been sealed. It’s going to lose money (forcing Sony to rethink its strategy with future “Spider-Man” spin-offs) and is further proof that the superhero bubble is bursting in Hollywood. The experience was so bad that star Dakota Johnson has said she would never do anything like it again. That number wouldn’t change the outcome.

Sony had a lot of luck out of the gate with 2018’s “Venom” and its sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” But Tom Hardy is set to wrap things up as Eddie Brock with “Venom: The Last Dance” later this year. Meanwhile, 2022’s “Morbius” was another unmitigated critical and commercial disaster once again saved only by a reasonably thrifty budget. The jury is still out on the R-rated “Kraven the Hunter” later this year but, beyond that, Sony hasn’t been able to do all that much with the Marvel characters it controls not named Spider-Man.

Looking at the bigger picture, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” was the only outright successful live-action superhero movie of 2023. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” was also a big hit but again, that movie features arguably the most popular superhero on the planet. The live-action decline is of major concern, and Sony’s window of opportunity to capitalize on the “Spider-Man” franchise through ancillary characters seems to be drying up. So yeah, maybe saying this film grossed at least $100 million worldwide would help ease the pain. But as it stands, falling just short of that mark feels like a more appropriate ending to this movie’s journey.

“Madame Web” is available on VOD now, with the Blu-ray hitting shelves on April 30, 2024.