Dakota Johnson, star of the critically panned superhero film Madame Web, has openly acknowledged the movie's status as a box office disappointment. During her recent hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live, Johnson quipped about still promoting the film, noting that it had yet to turn a profit.
"The last time I was here I was promoting a movie called Madame Web, thank you," Johnson stated on the show, referencing her previous appearance in 2024. "And tonight I'm still promoting it because the movie still hasn't made any money yet."
Madame Web has faced widespread criticism, contributing to a trend of underperforming films from Sony's Spider-Man universe, which also includes Morbius. The film garnered $100.5 million globally against its reported $100 million production budget, a figure believed to represent a net loss after distribution costs. Critically, the movie received a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and became the subject of numerous online memes. Johnson herself received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance.
Despite its poor performance, Madame Web is not among Hollywood's most significant box office disasters when compared to films like Disney's John Carter, which reportedly lost up to $200 million, or The Lone Ranger, with losses up to $190 million. Even The Marvels, another recent comic book adaptation, experienced greater financial losses and holds the distinction of being the worst-performing comic book movie to date. Madame Web avoided this particular fate due to its considerably lower production cost.
In a review of the film, IGN noted, "Madame Web has the makings of an interesting hybrid. But with a script overcrowded with extraneous characters, basic archetypes, and generic dialogue, it fails the talent and the future of its onscreen Spider-Women." The review assigned the film a score of 5/10.
Earlier this year, Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, conceded that audiences were not "satisfied enough" with the studio's live-action Spider-Man spinoffs. These films, beginning with Venom in 2018, include Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, Madame Web, Venom: The Last Dance, and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter. Sony had initially intended to integrate Spider-Man into these villain-centric projects, but such a crossover never materialized.