Despite having its own box office flop, Sony has redeemed Fox’s failures by comparison after its most recent Marvel movie has bombed so severely.
By the end of its lifespan, Fox’s X-Men franchise was floundering at the Box Office, but even its worst failure has been redeemed by Sony’s latest Marvel-based Box Office bomb. Fox’s original trilogy was followed up by four prequel movies that took place in a new timeline. X-Men: Days of Future Past is the highest-grossing of these with a $747 million worldwide gross. The popularity of the franchise has persisted now that the X-Men have come back into Marvel ownership, with upcoming MCU X-Men movies stoking significant excitement.
Fox’s lowest-grossing movies were also its lowest-rated, with its second attempt at adapting Marvel’s Dark Phoenix storyline failing even harder than its first in X-Men: The Last Stand. Sony has recently experienced something similar as it struggles to get its Spider-Man Universe off the ground. Its latest flop has hit the studio so hard that the future of the franchise is in significant jeopardy, but it helps make Fox’s failure look pretty reasonable by comparison.
Fox’s Worst X-Men Flop Compares Favorably With Madame Web
Dark Phoenix Doesn’t Look So Bad Now
Madame Web earned just $98 million at the worldwide box office. Of its core movies, Fox’s worst performer was X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which was its final one before Marvel regained control, earning $246 million worldwide. With an estimated production budget of $200 million, this could be considered a flop. Yet against Madame Web‘s worldwide take, it looks significantly better as it more than doubles Madame Web‘s earnings. Its highest performer, meanwhile, earned more than seven times as much.
Fox’s final X-Men movie, The New Mutants , was a spin-off that flopped even more severely, earning just $45 million at the worldwide Box Office
X-Men: Dark Phoenix also holds the unfortunate accolade of being Fox’s worst-rated X-Men movie. Critics took aim at its inability to justify a second stab at the same plot that appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand, failing to do justice to the comic run on which it is based while feeling stale overall. Its failure to grip audiences made the franchise’s migration to the MCU a welcome move. That same sentiment is now being aimed towards Sony with even greater intensity as fans clamor for Marvel to regain ownership of Spider-Man following Madame Web‘s terrible reception.
Why Madame Web Did So Much Worse Than 2019’s Dark Phoenix
Sony’s Spider-Verse Latest Fails On A Number Of Levels
Despite being Fox’s worst-rated X-Men movie, X-Men: Dark Phoenix still garnered more praise than Madame Web, which has been lambasted across the board. This has been a huge factor in its financial failure, as early reviews did not hold back on their derision, awarding the movie a paltry 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. Its comparatively abysmal box office can also be ascribed to overall enthusiasm for the franchise, which Fox had at least cultivated over the course of nearly two decades by the time X-Men: Dark Phoenix was released.
By contrast, enthusiasm for Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has dwindled to catastrophic levels, with general attitudes surrounding its upcoming Kraven the Hunter being pessimistic at best. Despite Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage being box office successes and garnering greater praise, the critically panned Morbius significantly marred Sony’s reputation, and Madame Web has just added to that unfavorable track record. Ultimately, however, the level of enthusiasm for an X-Men movie will always exceed that of an obscure Spider-Man side character like Madame Web.
