In a report published by the Daily Mail Online, Sony reportedly believes that Johnson is “dragging” the new film, which received scathing reviews from both critics and audiences, without taking any responsibility for its failure. One insider told the newspaper that “lots of people at Sony are questioning her star power, and how she reacted to this failure will likely come back to haunt her.” The source also noted that “not every movie is going to work, but a lot of hard work is put towards even bad movies and for your star to s**t on it is a bad look.”
The insider source continued by saying that “Dakota is being looked down on over her talk of the film because everyone in the production is thinking, what if the movie was still the same but also a box office gem? ‘She would be talking about sequels and probably praising herself over its good fortune.’” However, the studio was reportedly fine with Sydney Sweeney making a joke about Madame Web during her opening monologue on Saturday Night Live. Johnson’s criticism of the film partly includes her recent comments about how she wasn’t surprised that the film bombed in theaters.
Madame Web was met with intense criticism and ridicule when it premiered in movie theaters last month, earning a 12% critics score and 57% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Some fans were seemingly unhappy with the lack of direct connections to Spider-Man in the story, which the director S.J. Clarkson said was down to wanting Madame Web to stand out and “be in a universe of her own.”
This isn’t the first time that a Sony Marvel film has been met with a reaction like this. Jared Leto’s Morbius, for example, became a popular internet meme upon its release, so much so that the studio opted to re-release the film in theaters, only for it to stumble at the box office yet again. Next up in Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters is Kraven the Hunter starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, which is scheduled to hit theaters on August 30, 2024.
