Madame Web Is Officially A Failure: Here's What Sony's Marvel Future Should Look Like
The numbers are in, and things aren't looking good for Sony Pictures' "Madame Web." The studio's latest Marvel movie has sputtered at the box office, received negative reviews from critics, and earned a bad CinemaScore from audiences — an unfortunate trifecta for Sony that will almost certainly result in the abandonment of planned spin-offs or sequels about Madame Web teaming up with the three young Spider-Women in her life. Now that the film is officially a financial failure (as well as a creative one), the studio must be taking a hard look at the future of its so-called "Sony's Spider-Man Universe" projects and re-assessing whether going all-in on non-Spider-Man spin-off movies is the proper strategy going forward.
Yes, the "Venom" movies have been successful. But I'd argue that Venom is one of the very few marquee characters (who isn't named "Spider-Man") that falls under Sony's licensing deal with Marvel, and once "Venom 3" comes out later this year, it's going to be tough to find another character in that roster that audiences care about equally. The jury's still out about "Kraven the Hunter," which is also slated for release later this year, but the failure of "Madame Web" seems to indicate that the smartest play Sony could make here would be to get back to making live-action Spider-Man movies that actually feature Spider-Man.
The fact that "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is Sony's highest-grossing film of all time, combined with the popularity of the animated "Spider-Verse" movies, says that audiences are not tired of seeing Spidey on the big screen. So instead of playing in the margins of that character's world, Sony should focus all of its efforts on making another great Spider-Man movie — whether that involves getting Tom Holland's Peter Parker back, or moving on to another iteration of the character.
It's time for a live-action Miles Morales movie
Will Tom Holland return for a fourth Spider-Man-centric movie? His future with the franchise is currently unclear, but "No Way Home" left off at a point that could either mark the end of this Peter Parker's journey or the start of a whole new adventure for him.
Either way, in the wake of stumbles like "Morbius" and "Madame Web" and an uncertain future ahead with "Kraven," it's easy to imagine conversations being had in Sony conference rooms about what it would take to finally bring Miles Morales, the protagonist of the "Spider-Verse" films, into live-action. That would be a long overdue development, and could not only provide Sony with the shot in the arm its superhero films desperately need, but could pave the way for the studio to return to making their own Spider-Man films without the creative involvement of Kevin Feige and the folks at Marvel Studios. Whether or not Sony rolling solo on Spider-Man is a good thing is a different conversation, but from both a creative and financial perspective, it seems like returning to Spidey himself in some form should be Sony's obvious next step here. Ideally, the studio would leave the supporting player tales to Marvel and focus on telling the best story possible about their most important hero.
We spoke more about this on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:
You can subscribe to /Film Daily on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and send your feedback, questions, comments, concerns, and mailbag topics to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention your e-mail on the air.