Madame Web box office: Sony Spider-Man spinoff bombs in opening weekend, makes less than any SSU or MCU film

Sony Spider-Man Universe movie Madame Web is set to become the least successful film in the franchise’s history after doing even worse than Morbius in the opening weekend box office.

The film, which stars Dakota Johnson as the titular hero from the Spider-Man universe, was panned by critics ahead of its release and has gone on to rack up an array of negative audience reviews too.

With a measly 13% fresh rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes, and a rating of 3.8/10 on IMDB, making it the less popular than any other film in the SSU as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and DC Extended Universe (DCEU).

How much did Madame Work make on its opening weekend?

The opening weekend gross for Sony’s latest SSU film was just $49 million ($23.4 million domestic and $25.7 million internationally) - the film was beaten by Bob Marley: One Love as well as Yolo, Pegasus 2, Article 20, and Boonie Bears: Time Twist.

Considering the terrible reviews that came out ahead of the movie’s release, some of which suggested it may be another Morbius, or even as bad as 2003 flick Daredevil, the low box office numbers aren’t exactly a surprise.

However, it still raises questions about the future of the SSU, and superhero films more broadly. Madame Web’s box office struggles are part of a pattern of superhero movies in recent years. Previous SSU movie Morbius, which was ridiculed online, also struggled but even its $84 million opening weekend is more than a third higher than Madame Web managed. 

And the MCU’s latest offering, The Marvels, was the franchise’s poorest performing film so far, making $200 million over its entire cinematic run, more than half of which came from its opening weekend.

Yet The Marvels’ pitiful box office still dwarfs that of Madame Web, as the MCU flop had a higher domestic opening weekend than the entire worldwide gross for Sony’s latest effort. 

Is Madame Web a flop?

It’s fair to assume that Madame Web will flop at the box office when its cinematic run is over. The opening weekend is usually the best a film will ever perform, with steep drop offs expected after each successive weekend.

If, like The Marvels, Madame Web makes less than double its opening weekend returns in total, then it will not even pass the $100 million mark. Against a budget of $80 million, the film would need to make roughly $200 million to see a profit, given marketing costs and the cinemas’ cut of the ticket sales.

Additionally, Morbius just fell short of doubling its opening weekend takings by the time it left cinemas, which further suggests Madame Web is up against it to make its money back. Therefore, Madame Web could be on track to become the SSU’s least successful film and lose Sony $100 million.