Madame Web star Emma Roberts has a theory about why the Marvel superhero movie was a box office flop—and it has to do with the internet.
A Sony Pictures Entertainment release unrelated to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, Madame Web stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra “Cassie” Webb, a paramedic who suddenly gains the power of clairvoyance after nearly drowning in a freak accident.
Roberts stars in a supporting role in Madame Web as Mary Parker, the pregnant sister-in-law of Cassie’s paramedic partner Ben Parker (Adam Scott). Cassie relies on Mary to help protect Julia (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie (Celeste O’Connor) and Ayna (Isabela Merced)—a trio of teen girls wanted dead by the villainous Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim).
However, when Mary goes into early labor and needs to go to the hospital, Ezekiel uses advanced technology to learn of the teens’ whereabouts.
According to The Numbers, Madame Web earned $43.8 million in domestic theaters and $56.4 million internationally for a worldwide tally of $102.2 million during its theatrical run. The film had an $80 million production budget before prints and advertising, the box office tracker noted.
During an interview with Variety about her new Prime Video original movie Space Cadet, Roberts—the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts—said she “really enjoyed the movie” and “thought everyone in it was great.”
“The director, S.J. Clarkson, I think did an amazing job. She’s the reason I wanted to do that movie,” Roberts told Variety. “If it wasn’t for internet culture and everything being made into a joke, I think that the reception would’ve been different. And that’s what bums me out about a lot of stuff, even stuff that I’ve done, is people just make such a joke out of everything now.”
‘Madame Web’ Eventually Found An Audience On Netflix
One thing that certainly didn’t help Madame Web’s box office prospects was the critical drubbing it took in movie reviews.
Rotten Tomatoes critics trounced Madame Web with an 11% “rotten” rating based on 259 reviews. RT users, meanwhile, were much kinder to Madame Web, but the Audience Score was still deemed “rotten” at 57%, based on 1,000-plus verified user ratings.
In her Variety interview, Emma Roberts said she would—unlike Dakota Johnson—do a movie like Madame Web again because she’s not intimidated by failure or negative thoughts about her work.
“Things work; things don’t work. Everyone likes to act like they can predict if they’re going to work or they’re not,” Roberts told Variety. “And the truth is, you can’t. Things do badly and then they blow up later on TikTok.”
Or in this case, Madame Web blew up on Netflix.
Madame Web debuted on the streamer on May 14, three months after it was released in theaters—and debuted at No. 2 on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Movies chart for the week of May 13-19. During its first week on the streaming service, Madame Web amassed 10.8 million views, which equates to 20.8 million viewing hours.
During the same week, Madame Web was No. 1 on the streamer’s Top 10 U.S. Movies chart.
Madame Web is still available to stream on Netflix.
