'I'm not surprised': Dakota Johnson turns on 'Madame Web' after flop — says movie execs aren't respecting art or audiences



Actress Dakota Johnson said she wasn't "surprised" by bad reviews for recent Sony/Marvel flick "Madame Web," which performed poorly at the box office.

The movie was another record-setting disaster for Disney-owned Marvel but especially bad considering Marvel's releases under Sony do not have as poor of a track record.

However, the film took in just $23.55 million for its first weekend, which included a special midweek Valentine's Day opening. According to Box Office Mojo, the film had taken in just over $40 million after more than three weekends.

On top of saying that she was sick for the movie's opening, Johnson said that when it came out, she couldn't "take any of it seriously at all."

Johnson was asked by Bustle if she was bothered by any of the nasty reviews the film had garnered, to which she replied, "Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has."

What followed was Johnson's critique that has been echoed by many actors and comedians in recent years, noting that network and studio executives have increased their footprint in the creation of art.

"It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made — and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out — decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee. Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bulls**t."

The actress even added that if films begin to feature artificial intelligence, "Humans aren’t going to f**king want to see those."

While the Austin, Texas, native said "Madame Web" was "definitely an experience," she said that she would probably "never do anything like it again."

"I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now," she explained. "But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, Wait, what? But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand."

"It\u2019s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made... decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it\u2019s made by committee." - Dakota Johnson | https://t.co/XnWTroMAY9
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With "Madame Web" performing so poorly, it was one of the worst flops in comic-book movie history. Critics agreed; the film raked in an abysmal rating of 12% on popular review site Rotten Tomatoes.

Critiques were summarized by labeling the film "predictable" and a "forgettable superhero adventure."

The film also notably "brims with cringeworthy scenes," entertainment writer Christian Toto noted. "If you can watch the endangered trio dancing on a table for the bemusement of some horny young men, you’ve got a steel spine," he added.

Our March cover story with Dakota Johnson is so good, it broke the internet. Literally.
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Johnson gave similar scathing remarks about the state of Hollywood on the film's press tour, saying that it was "majorly disheartening" to try to get movies made.

"The people who run streaming platforms don’t trust creative people or artists to know what’s going to work, and that is just going to make us implode," she said, according to Variety.

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‘Madame Web’ Review: MCU once again turns M-She-U in latest flop



“Madame Web” was just released on Valentine’s Day, and it’s already considered a failure of epic proportions. Despite starring big names such as Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, the film received an abysmal IMDb rating of 3.8/10 stars and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 12%.

“I do not believe that ‘Madame Web’ is a film that was honestly made with the intention of either being profitable or well received,” says Lauren Chen, adding that the movie is so bad that it seems like it was created by the same studio that produced “2-Headed Shark Attack.”

However, Sony Pictures is the studio behind “Madame Web,” which is a shame considering the conglomerate has been “praised and made a lot of money” in the past.

“For the first 10 minutes or so, I did not believe that I was actually watching the movie. I was thinking to myself: Has a parody of the film already managed to come out and that is what I'm accidentally being shown?” Lauren recounts, noting that the opening scene is just “so cheesy.”

“I present to you ‘Madame Web's’ opening scene,” she continues, reading some of the film’s initial dialogue.

Ezekiel Sims: “That spider can give superhuman strength and power, right? Las Arañas?”

Cassandra’s mom: “Las Arañas, the mythical spider people who run across the treetops and punish evil men with their black poison webs? I like to base my research in science, not legends, Mr. Sims.”

Ezekiel Sims: “Those spiders are wasted here.”

Cassandra’s mom: “These little spiders have the potential to cure hundreds of diseases.”

“How did that make it past the initial edit?!” asks Lauren in disbelief. “There are so many different people who are involved in making a movie…No one was like, ‘Hold up, let's give that another go’?”

Soon after this scene, Cassandra’s mom “just appears on screen with a little spider in her jar and announces, ‘I found it,”’ but the actual locating of the spider “happens off screen,” which makes little sense considering “the entire film is based around [that event].”

Ezekiel then proceeds to kill Cassandra’s mom and her entire team in order to steal the spider, but before her mother’s death, infant Cassandra is delivered by the Las Arañas, who just show up out of the blue. They take her to their “spider cave,” and then suddenly the film “fast-forwards to 2003 New York and now Cassie is all grown up.”

And that’s just the beginning of the film.

Between “three spider-women ... a white one, a Latina one, and a black one,” a weak connection to Peter Parker from the original Spider-Man franchise, plotlines that make no sense, and “annoying characters,” “Madame Web” fails so catastrophically, it can’t even be considered “an entertaining hate watch,” says Lauren.

To hear more of Lauren’s analysis, watch the video below.


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'Madame Web' sees worse opening than 'The Marvels' — another diverse, female superhero flop from Disney



Yet another big-budget superhero movie from Marvel has performed terribly. "Madame Web" is doing worse than its predecessors after a disastrous opening.

The 2024 Marvel film appeared similar to "The Marvels" in that it is a diverse, female-led cast of superheroes. However, it seemed that Marvel and Disney were trying to draw in a younger audience by having actress Dakota Johnson parent three younger women on-screen.

However, the presence of Celeste O'Connor (25), Sydney Sweeney (26), and Isabela Merced (22) as new blood to the Marvel Cinematic Universe did not help the movie's box office performance.

As Bounding into Comics noted, the non-Spider-Man movie "Madame Web" brought in just $6,051,012 on its opening night, worse than both "Morbius" ($11,605,908) and "The Marvels" ($15,003,104).

After its release, "The Marvels" seemed poised to maintain its spot as having the worst opening weekend of any Marvel Cinematic Universe movie for at least some time. However, the latest MCU flick did just half the box office of noted feminist Brie Larson's film.

With a budget estimated at $80 million by TheNumbers.com, opening weekend totals for "Madame Web" were just $23,555,000, which included a special mid-week Valentine's Day opening. With a long-weekend open, "The Marvels" took in a then-record-low $46,110,859.

Sony confirms #MadameWeb has 0 post-credit scenes
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The movie has received an abysmal rating of 3.4 on IMDB, which will mark quite a low point for director S.J. Clarkson.

The film was not without attempts at luring in audiences, however. According to Hollywood in Toto, the aptly named main character Cassandra Webb works as an EMT alongside her platonic partner, Ben Parker. Audiences would assume this is Peter Parker aka Spider-Man's uncle. Peter's mother, Mary Parker, is allegedly pregnant with the would-be Spider-Man in the film, as well.

The film also notably "brims with cringeworthy scenes," writer Christian Toto noted.

"If you can watch the endangered trio dancing on a table for the bemusement of some horny young men, you’ve got a steel spine," he added.

Some of the cast members have been surprisingly less woke in their statements to the press than typical Marvel leads.

Actress Sweeney has faced criticism for wearing MAGA hats (albeit as a joke) and Blue Lives Matter merchandise.

Merced was pummeled by leading questions in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter but managed to sidestep queries about immigration, tight-fitting clothes, and evening the aforementioned dance scene.

However, Johnson has spoken about her previous role playing a single feminist heroine in "Persuasion," stating that she hoped it would "spark more conversation" about Roe v. Wade.

As well, Kenyan-born O'Connor has been cited as "resisting capitalism" and noted in an interview that black women "are taught to shrink ourselves and accept less than what we want or deserve."

None of this could help "Madame Web" escape critics and viewers, though. With reviews such as ABC News' saying that "God-awful is too weak a word to describe" the film, things do not look good for Marvel.

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