Madame Web Tickets refunded as moviegoers flock at a disturbing rate 

Madame Web is making news for all the wrong reasons. In a disappointing turn of events, the movie sees refunded tickets at various theatres as sales decline all over the United States. While it was clear in the past few weeks that the movie would cause Sony distress, mass refunding of advance booking tickets is a new upsetting event.

Madame Web is a movie based on the character of Cassandra Webb who was meant to have a stand-alone universe, although connected to Peter Parker. The movie was positioned to be the origin story for the titular character as well as three Spider-Women.

Distributed by Sony Pictures, it is produced by Marvel Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Di Bonaventura Pictures, and TSG Entertainment, all of whom will face the brunt of the box-office failure.

Disclaimer: This article may contain spoilers.

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Madame Web sales dwindle as moviegoers ask for ticket refunds

An insider's post about dwindling sales of the movie (Image via Reddit)

As per Daily Mail, Madame Web has faced one of the worst openings for a movie based on a Marvel character. The movie was expected to fail right before its theatrical release.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the movie house insider reported that the declining sales could be seen in real-time. Not only is this spelling bad news for the movie, but it also seems to be the end of the planned franchise. Marking one of the lowest openings, Madame Web made $25.7 million from the international market and $26.2 million from the North American market, in six days, reported the Daily Mail.

Fan reaction on social media (Image via X)

A movie enthusiast's reaction (Image via X)

There have been social media reactions to the insider report as the movie’s sales dropped after a midweek opening on February 14, 2024. It is believed that some moviegoers asked for a refund as late as Wednesday night as per the theatrical chain insider.

Superhero fans and movie enthusiasts are comparing the movie with previous flopped movies including Shazam! 2 and Morbius. However, even the much-criticized Morbius earned $170 million overall.

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What are the reasons for Madame Web failing at the box office?

Moviegoers and experts are coming out with various reasons for the failure of the movie. One of the main reasons was the bad reviews the movie attracted from the critics, besides a bad promotional campaign. The movie panned with the critics for basic technical reasons such as poor script, bad editing, pathetic CGI, lackluster acting, and lack of flow.

All the movie scorers gave Madame Web a meager rating. A 13% from Rotten Tomatoes is considered poor for a Marvel Superhero movie. While Metacritic scored it a 27 out of 100, the more relaxed CinemaScore graded it a C+.

Another reason for its failure is attributed to “superhero fatigue”, a trend evident in the last couple of years. Other than the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, every other superhero live-action movie had underperformed in 2023. At the same time, the mega-production houses are trying to come out with new franchises.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, an unnamed studio veteran from Sony, pointed out another reason for the failure of the movie. Madame Web was bringing out a team of female superheroes in a movie presented by a female director. The experiment did not work out. In North America, 65-70% of viewers of superhero movies are males while females make up about 46%. This may have affected the movie’s success.

While Sony might be gloomy about the outcome of Madame Web, it still has the upcoming Kraven to look forward to for some damage control.

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What is Madame Web, the movie, about?

Madame Web was positioned to be a franchise where the titular character gets special powers to make her a superhero while three women acquire the potential to be Spider-Women. The movie connects to Spider-Man’s universe as the birth of Peter Parker is part of the movie.

The plot follows a New York paramedic, Cassandra Webb, who develops psychic powers and can see into the future. When she dreams about three women, with superhero potentials, being killed by a villain, she embarks on a journey to change the future.

On one hand, she reaches out to the three girls and on the other, she digs out the identity of the villain. The rest of the action-packed movie is about fighting off an immensely powerful villain, Ezekiel Sims, and defeating him.

While Dakota Johnson portrays the titular character, Tahar Rahim plays the main antagonist Ezekiel. The three girls poised to be superheroes, are played by Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, and Isabel Merced.

Madame Web is currently running in theatres in the US.