Madame Web still trails behind the opening weekend of Morbius. The movie, which stars Dakota Johnson as the titular clairvoyant paramedic, is the fourth installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which includes Venom, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Morbius, and the upcoming movies Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3. Madame Web opened midweek on Valentine’s Day with a 6-day President’s Day holiday weekend total of $26 million, which was still the lowest opening of the entire franchise behind the $39 million domestic debut of Morbius, which flopped in 2022, was re-released two months later after going viral, and flopped again.
Per Collider, the Madame Web box office has reached $77.4 million worldwide by the end of its second weekend in theaters. That is not nearly enough for the movie to earn a profit, as the break-even point for the project, which has a reported budget between $80 and $100 million, is estimated to be around $200 million. On top of that, it still hasn’t made as much money as Morbius’ global opening weekend, which earned $83.9 million.
Could Madame Web Ever Outgross Morbius?
The Madame Web release has been struggling despite quite a few advantages. In addition to its well-timed double holiday weekend debut, it came during a time when major blockbusters were light on the ground, partially due to a more spread-out schedule in the wake of the 2023 strikes in which writers and actors fought for fair pay. The only other major releases in February up to that point had been the lukewarm releases Argylle and Lisa Frankenstein, which gave the superhero movie plenty of room to find its audience.
“If it maintains a stronger week-on-week hold, the movie could potentially start closing the gap between its current total and Morbius ‘ gross.”
While that factor did not seem to impact Madame Web’s dismal opening weekend, it may have affected its week 2 drop. While it had a harsh drop of 61%, it was the second-best week 2 drop of the franchise and fared much better than the severe 73.8% drop of Morbius. If it maintains a stronger week-on-week hold, the movie could potentially start closing the gap between its current total and Morbius’ gross. Below, check out how the movies compare during their first weekends at the domestic box office.
The Madame Web movie could start to catch up with Morbius if several factors work in its favor, including international interest, a consistently higher theater count, and decreasingly severe week-on-week drops. However, it nevertheless seems mathematically unlikely that it will ever reach Morbius’ overall worldwide total of $167.5 million. Additionally, the impending release of Dune: Part Two next weekend will likely provide too much blockbuster competition for the superhero title to prevail.
