The Failure Of ‘Madame Web’ Has Put An End To A Possible Franchise Filled With Spin-Offs

Remember when comic book movies were a sure thing It wasn’t that long ago. The last few years have seen dinks crop up in a genre once thought invincible. Last year the only one that was a hit was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The rest failed, some worse than others. The fatigue continued this weekend with Madame Web, which was unable to overcome poor reviews and some bad press, grossing under half of what the box office winner, Bob Marley: One Love, did. The grosses were so bad that it’s naturally killed any hope of a franchise.

The Hollywood Reporter has a post mortem for Madame Web, which reveals Sony was planning on more films with Dakota Johnson’s clairvoyant superhero. (Spoiler alert: She could have probably even hung out with fellow Sony Marvel property Spider-Man, who gets a shout-out.) That’s not all:

The film introduced a trio of supporting characters (played by Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor and Sydney Sweeney — now one of the top stars her age). It set up a future in which the three could have become a team of Spider-Women under the guiding eye of Johnson’s Cassie Webb. Now that’s not going to happen.

Speaking of Sweeney, it very much appears that her pricey superhero movie will gross significantly less than her modestly budgeted rom-com. Anyone But You has stuck around in the box office Top 10 for nine weeks, going on 10.

THR spoke with a “major theatrical chain insider,” who said Madame Web‘s bad reviews, which dropped Tuesday, appear to have actually impacted the grosses.

“On Wednesday night, you could actually watch advance purchase sales declining in real time as buyers were refunding their tickets,” they said. “It really says something when you’d rather have Shazam! 2 numbers.”

So RIP comic book movies Probably not. The good news is that genres that haven’t been as prevalent at the multiplexes in the last decade — historical docudramas, biopics, rom-coms, musicals, feminist comedies about dolls — have been raking it in again. Cinema lives!