Madame Web’s reception garnered a lower than average box office for the movie – but 1 X-Men movie spinoff actually redeems this total overall.
Fox’s biggest X-Men box office bomb makes the financial results of Madame Web look far better by a not inconsequential sum of $50 million. Madame Web‘s reviews and box office have seen it regarded as one of the most controversial superhero releases in recent history. This is in part a reaction to it being a follow-up to the also divisive Morbius, as the prior installment in the Sony Spider-Man Universe saw a considerable amount of jokes created as a result of the negative perception of the Marvel story and its execution.
For some, this meant Madame Web‘s negative reception was written in stone from the moment it was announced, with the trailer solidifying this and immediately becoming the subject of memes and a reasonably justified level of audience concern. Since what came to pass validated these concerns, it is somewhat surprising to know that the movie’s box office did outdo one X-Men movie spinoff.
The New Mutants’ Movie Box Office Was Half Of Madame Web’s
Madame Web’s Box Office Still Beats Other Superhero Movies
Madame Web‘s worldwide box office results were on the lower side for modern superhero movies, taking in around $97 million overall. However, this number is actually over double of 2020 Marvel movie The New Mutant‘s own box office, which came to a final total of $44 million.
Though The New Mutants did make more from home release sales, this comes to $6 million, which just pushes the overall takings to the $50 million mark. While this isn’t the worst case scenario result in terms of home market takings, the fact that the box office and home market performance combined still is just over half of Madame Web‘s box office results certainly puts the X-Men movie’s financial circumstances into context.
Why The New Mutants Did Worse At The Box Office Than Madame Web
The New Mutants Dealt With External & Internal Problems
The New Mutants suffered from a selection of issues that put a dampener on its box office results which were, essentially, out of anyone’s control. The New Mutants‘ release was delayed for two years – initially moved from its first 2018 date to 2019 to avoid coinciding with Deadpool 2, and then moved to 2020 to avoid coinciding with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. This 2020 release date didn’t make things easier, as the film was then delayed in 2020 from a projected April date to September, due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus epidemic.
The pandemic was still an ongoing concern by September 2020, but with the movie already delayed by now almost 3 years – and no end to the pandemic itself in sight – The New Mutants was released on September 4, 2020. This not only meant that audiences were far less likely to go to see the film because of health concerns, but also that even those who did may have ultimately found themselves unable to find a nearby viewing, as many theaters during this time were closed, with Deadline reporting the opening weekend in the US was at a time when only 62% of cinemas were open.
However, this isn’t to say the only issues with the movie were ones that The New Mutants couldn’t have avoided, as is reflected by its low Rotten Tomatoes scores. Critical reception for the film cited its odd pacing, jarring tonal shifts, and unusual story choices as alienating audiences, with many stating it felt more like a straight-to-streaming release than one for cinematic release. Combined with the external factors, this served as the proverbial nail in the coffin for the X-Men movie, and can be seen to explain its lackluster box office results.
What The New Mutants & Madame Web’s Box Office Shows About Superhero Movies
Many Lessons Can Be Taken From The New Mutants & Madame Web’s Box Offices
While The New Mutants and Madame Web suffer from many different complications in terms of their creation and the circumstances around them, there are also a lot of commonalities that the two share, despite being released years apart and in two different Marvel movie franchises. Both films show that superhero releases revolving around less focal characters can be a risk unless the movie itself is able to demonstrate exactly what is engaging about these figures, in the vein of the MCU’s Guardians Of The Galaxy series.
The New Mutants and Madame Web also serve to highlight the complications of making a broader Marvel franchise. Madame Web was part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, and The New Mutants was tangentially connected to Fox’s X-Men, but in effect this only served to damage the reputations of both franchises, and confuse audiences via a lack of tangible connection to the broader series. This latter note is perhaps the most important, as with Sony’s Spider-Man Universe continuing on – and the MCU itself garnering more critical reception in recent history – these movies can help these franchises learn vital lessons for going forward.
