It Made 'Her-Story' All Right: Sony's Female Spider-Man Spinoff Opens to Historically Low Box Office Number
One of the most common phrases associated with supposedly groundbreaking female-led properties nowadays is “her-story.” Instead of “history” (a word apparently tainted by its patriarchal first three letters), feminist-approved films make “her-story.”
Well, the latest all-female action flick to come out of Hollywood sure made “her-story” all right, just not in the way Sony was hoping for.
“Madame Web,” the Spider-Man spinoff film featuring four female leads, bombed to epic proportions this past weekend. That failure has continued on into this week as well.
According to Box Office Mojo, the film’s Wednesday night previews only raked in $6 million and on Thursday, only a minuscule $2.1 million.
This should go without saying, but those are embarrassingly low numbers.
Over the four-day President’s Day weekend, “Madame Web” only made just over a measly $17.8 million, per Box Office Mojo.
That low number makes Marvel history: It is the lowest box office opening for a Sony-Marvel movie ever.
Early projections from Deadline — which were disastrously low — proved to be accurate.
The outlet had predicted the film would make only $25 million in its first six days.
“Madame Web,” to its absolute minimal credit, exceeded those predictions and went on to make $26 million in that time.
This movie is yet another in a long line of examples of Hollywood’s failure to reach women.
Over the past few years, studios have rebranded male-centric franchises for female audiences.
Nowhere is this more obvious than with Marvel.
Disney-Marvel’s attempts to become more “female-friendly” have fallen flat on their face.
The studio’s most recent venture, “The Marvels,” featuring three female leads, bombed spectacularly.
One survey shows that 65 percent of “The Marvels” audience was male. Apparently, women aren’t as interested in superhero action franchises.
To the lament of many a feminist, they’d rather watch “Barbie.”
Newer surveys show that the audience of Sony-Marvel’s (Sony owns the rights to Marvel’s Spider-Man and his supporting characters whereas Disney owns everything else Marvel-related) “Madame Web” was similarly skewed male despite its female cast.
“Despite a reported $60 million dollar ad spend mostly focusing on young women/social media, the audience still skewed male at 53% men and 47% women,” Box Office Pro reported.
“Madame Web” currently boasts a “rotten” 13 percent critics score and a sub-par 56 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
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