Is Sony’s Madame Web a Box Office Success?

Summary

• Madame Web’s low opening weekend gross makes it the biggest box office bomb in the Spider-Man franchise.
• Negative buzz, terrible reviews, and poor word of mouth led to Madame Web’s rapid decline at the box office.
• Despite a lower budget, Madame Web’s inability to engage audiences suggests it may not recover from being a flop.

Madame Web is the latest attempt by Sony Pictures to launch their own interconnected universe of Spider-Man characters, yet unlike Venom, which proved to be a massive box office hit that gave Sony the confidence to move forward with their plans of a shared universe, Madame Web has hit a new low. According to the Hollywood Reporter, a theater owner said that they could track advanced ticket sales going down with audiences requesting refunds before the film hit after the reviews for the movie came out.

Opening on Valentine’s Day and looking to cash in on the President’s Day holiday weekend that helped superhero films like Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, this did not translate to Madame Web, and instead, the movie opened number 2 at the box office behind Bob Marley: One Love, which performed above expectations. Terrible reviews and word of mouth have now sunk Madame Web as its second weekend finds it struggling at the box office.

Madame Web is another high-profile superhero disappointment at the box office. While Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom did turn out to be a moderate hit over the holiday season, it still came in well below the $1 billion worldwide gross of the first film. The Marvels became the first bomb in the MCU’s history. The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods was a notable box-office disappointment. While Madame Web might not have cost as much as many of those films, is the movie a box office bomb? And if so, how bad?

Spider-Man Franchise Opening Weekends

There is no denying that Madame Web is a box office bomb. The movie has the lowest-grossing opening weekend of any film in the Spider-Man franchise, be it a main Spider-Man-centric movie or one of the spin-off films that does not feature Spider-Man but is based on a character from his supporting cast like Venom or Moribus.

NOTE: Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man 2, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Madame Web all opened on holiday weeks ahead of the three-day weekend, so this chart only accounts for their three-day opening weekend.

Madame Web‘s three-day total was $15 million, and even factoring in the six-day holiday weekend from President’s Day, the movie only grossed $26 million, which would still be below both the three-day opening weekend gross of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (the lowest grossing weekend for a Spider-Man led movie) and the critically reviewed Morbius. This is certainly a terrible look, but of course, standing next to some of the biggest movies of all time will make any movie look bad. How does Madame Web compare to some other notable box office disasters?

All-Time Worst Superhero Opening Weekends

Madame Web looks terrible by Sony’s Spider-Man standards, but what about some of the highest-profile superhero bombs? Well, thankfully, Madame Web is not the lowest-grossing opening weekend for a comic book superhero movie. Steel, Punisher: War Zone, The Spirit, 2019’s Hellboy, and Elektra are below the film’s three-day opening weekend. This still is not a good look as there is a lot of splitting hairs against other superhero disappointments. While Catwoman grossed $1 million more in its three-day opening weekend, to be fair, if we count the additional three days Madame Web outside its opening weekend, it would have likely come out ahead.

What is more troubling, though, is 2015’s Fantastic Four. That film notably had a terrible opening weekend, $25 million, and opened at number 3 at the box office. In three days, Fantastic Four grossed just a little under what Madame Web did in six days. That is certainly a terrible look for the movie. 2023 saw some notable superhero disappointments, with Blue Beetle having the lowest opening weekend of the releases with $25 million, and it still managed to come out ahead of Madame Web.

Wonder Woman 1984, a movie that opened during the COVID-19 pandemic and had a simultaneous HBO Max release, grossed more than Madame Web did over three days with $16 million. That means Madame Web, at a time when theaters are open, could not generate more audience attendance than a movie that opened during the COVID-19 pandemic with limited theaters and available to audiences to stream at home on the same day.

Does Madame Web’s Budget Soften the Blow?

One slight advantage Madame Web has is its budget. The movie has a reported production budget of $80 million. In the film’s second weekend, it grossed $6 million, a 61% drop off, and a total of $35 million domestically, meaning it still has yet to gross as much as Morbius did in its opening weekend. Even though it has over $50 million worldwide, and that would appear close to its reported budget, this is not a factor in marketing costs, and also the fact that the percentage splits across international markets tend to mean the studios get less. Madame Web is dropping off quickly at the box office and will soon likely fall out of the top 10 as theaters make way for Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Madame Web is likely going to gross less than The Marvels, one of the biggest box office bombs of 2023, in that film’s opening weekend.

Related: Madame Web Breakdown: Biggest Spoilers and Easter Eggs

Now, to be fair to Madame Web, The Marvels certainly cost more, and even with it grossing more than Madame Web, it can be said to be a bigger flop. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that Madame Web was a flop and certainly received less positive critical reaction than The Marvels did. Madame Web has bombed at the box office, and the bad word of mouth from fans and critics, as well as dismal reviews, likely mean it won’t have any chance of recovering.

Why Did Madame Web Bomb

Ever since Madame Web‘s trailer was released, the movie was riding a wave of negative buzz. From the mocked line delivery of “He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders, right before she died.” to the film’s cheap-looking aesthetics, the film did not have a positive buzz to help carry any excitement. While some might say it was because the character of Madame Web is a lesser-known character, a good trailer can turn that around. Nobody knew who the Guardians of the Galaxy were but Marvel Studios teaser trailer got audiences excited, the same can be said for Suicide Squad, Ant-Man and Shazam!.

Terrible reviews for the movie certainly did not help, and then, when audiences finally saw the movie, word of mouth tanked the film. While there are hopes the film can become a camp classic or a “so bad it’s good” kind of film, that doesn’t translate to box office numbers as audiences are not likely to rush out to a theater to spend money on it. They will wait to watch it in the comfort of their own home. The proof of that can be found in films like Cats or even Morbius.

Related: The Biggest Superhero Movie Bombs, Ranked by Box Office Gross

While some might say that superhero movie fatigue is a factor, that is a more complicated matter. While 2023 saw notable superhero box office misfires, films like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were two of the highest-grossing movies of the year. There is also no doubt that both Deadpool & Wolverine and Joker: Folie à Deux will be two of the biggest movies of 2024. As a matter of fact, audiences won’t turn out for a movie that doesn’t look interesting or feels like it was something they’ve seen before and a lot of the superhero movies of 2023 and now Madame Web looked like that.

Madame Web has kicked off 2024 with one of its biggest flops and one that might hurt both Sony’s Spider-Man franchise and Marvel’s brand as a whole.