Madame Web has finally surpassed the opening weekend of Morbius at the domestic box office. Morbius, which starred Jared Leto as the titular living vampire, had previously grossed the lowest-ever opening for the Sony Spider-Man Universe, which also includes Venom and Venom: Let There be Carnage. However, Madame Web’s $15.3 million opening broke that record, coming in considerably below Morbius’ $39 million. The movie spent the following days and weeks struggling to outgross just that 3-day total.
Per Deadline, the Madame Web box office is projected to end its third weekend in theaters with a domestic total of $40 million. This means that it will have finally outgrossed the Morbius domestic debut after three weekends. However, until the final international numbers for the weekend come in, it is unclear if its worldwide gross will surpass Morbius’ global opening, which was $83.9 million.
It is still too early to tell if the Madame Web release can be officially considered a flop. However, the movie’s prospects are looking decidedly negative. Its consistent inability to catch up with Morbius, for one thing, is a bad omen considering the fact that the Leto movie, which had an estimated budget between $75 and $83 million (thus likely having a break-even point somewhere above $150 million), only ended up making $167.5 million at the worldwide box office.
Unless Madame Web can get a huge box office boost, it will almost certainly end up with a worldwide box office total significantly lower than that of Morbius. Unfortunately for the movie, it comes with a price tag smack-dab in the middle of Morbius’ estimated budget range. The Dakota Johnson vehicle reportedly cost $80 million, which means it would likely need to make $160 million to break even, something that seems entirely outside its power.
The Madame Web movie also premiered during a time in mid-February when there were fewer major blockbusters to contend with. Now that its release has crossed over into March and the release of the epic sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two, it will lose out theater space to the Chalamet movie and other blockbusters that are set to follow on subsequent weekends, including Imaginary, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. With dwindling showtimes in the face of such competition, its box office prospects will likely shrivel and prove unable to keep the movie from ending up in the red.
