Since it was first announced, the buzz around Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man spin-off “Madame Web” hasn’t been great.
The film features a cast — headlined by Dakota Johnson of the “Fifty Shades” franchise and Sydney Sweeney of “Euphoria” — full of diverse women whose characters have all gained Spider-Man-like powers. The general discourse around “Madame Web,” which is set to open on Feb. 14, has ranged from lackluster to downright ridicule.
Well, according to box office projections, that sentiment will be reflected in the movie’s box office opening, which is set to break all the wrong records with how low it’s going to be.
According to a Deadline projection from Jan. 25, the film is set to make a meager $25 million in its first six days.
The only good things Deadline had to say about the film and its terrible projections were that, one, it was tracking with audiences under 35 years old, and two, it is “solid with diverse audiences.”
That would be the lowest opening for any movie set in Marvel and Sony’s budding shared universe of Spider-Man properties.
As of now, “Morbius” holds the title for the lowest opening Sony Spider-Man film.
In its three-day opening, the 2022 Jared Leto-led anti-superhero flick raked in over $39 million per Box Office Mojo.
Are you going to see “Madame Web”?
To put it another way — if Deadline’s projections hold — in half the time, the critically and commercially panned “Morbius” will have made far more in box office profits.
Suffice it to say, if those “Madame Web” projections hold, things aren’t looking good.
“Worst opening of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe” isn’t the only record “Madame Web” will set if estimations pan out.
It’ll also be the worst opening of any Sony-Marvel joint project.
It’s also one of the worst openings of any Marvel property since the rise of the superhero movie era with 2008’s “Iron Man” (the first film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe).
In the 16 years since, the only movies based on Marvel properties to perform as poorly or worse were 2008’s “Punisher: Warzone” and 2020’s “The New Mutants,” which came out amid the COVID pandemic, according to Box Office Mojo.
After Hollywood suffered a year of monumental flops, given this news, it looks like 2024 may very well follow the same pattern.
“Madame Web” hits theaters on Feb. 14.
