Madame Web officially breaks a 22-year Sony Spider-Man box office record

Madame Web breaks a 22-year-old Sony Spider-Man box office record in its 6-day opening. Since the release of 2002 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. Although part of the SSU, Madame Web didn’t generate the same level of anticipation and excitement that usually exists for films related to the popular superhero.

According to film/box-office/box-office-bob-marley-biopic-beats-madame-web-holiday-weekend-1235915397/” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Variety, Madame Web gained weight $25.8 million domestically during its 6-day opening and $17.6 million during the typical 3-day opening weekend. Madame WebSSU Box Office Now Officially Having Worst Opening in SSU History, Even Below Criticized Score Morbius” 3-day opening gross of $39 million. For a complete comparison of SSU films, see the table below:

Why Madame Web bombed at the box office

Even before Madame Web was released in theaters, the new Sony film seemed on the verge of poor results, largely due to a questionable marketing campaign. Madame WebThe first trailer of became known for its cringeworthy line, “He was in the Amazon with my mother when she was researching spiders, just 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 phrase isn’t even uttered in the film itself, but the damage was already done before.

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” Since Madame Web’s original story which was presented to him, just a few days before the film‘s release in theaters. Despite these red flags, one of the few elements of the marketing that generated excitement was the glimpse of the different Spider-Women in their distinct costumes. Those looking forward to this aspect of the film were disappointed as these characters only wear their costumes in visions of the future, making the marketing misleading.

Some films can bounce back from a mediocre box office debut thanks to good reviews and word of mouth, but this is unlikely to happen for Madame Webwhich currently holds a 13% critical score and 54% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which previously had SSU’s lowest opening gross, went on to earn $384.3 million worldwide thanks to its excellent critical reception and audience. 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 probably won’t happen now.

Source: film/box-office/box-office-bob-marley-biopic-beats-madame-web-holiday-weekend-1235915397/” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>Variety