The actress speaks candidly about the critical and commercial failure of superhero movies: ‘I’ll probably never do something like that again’
Dakota Johnson has opened up about the critical and commercial failure of superhero film Madame Web, saying she will likely “never do something like that again.”
The actor starred in Sony’s latest attempt to open up the Spider-Man universe but was met with negative reviews and disappointing box office returns. The film has a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only earned $91 million worldwide on an estimated production budget of $80 million.
In an interview with Bustle, the actress was asked if she was bothered when people wrote “nasty” reviews. “Unfortunately, I’m not surprised this went down the way it did,” she replied.
In a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Richard Roeper called it “one of the worst comic book movies I’ve ever seen” while David Fear of Rolling Stone called it “the Cats: The Movie of superheroes hero”.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Johnson said. “I’ll probably never do anything like that again because I don’t mean anything in that world. And now I know it. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on for something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re creating it, it becomes something completely different, and you’re like, Wait, what what? But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be part of something that’s torn to pieces, but I can’t say I don’t understand.”
Johnson also joked about how her comments would be portrayed. “It’s like, ‘Dakota Johnson breaks his silence on the damn box office failure of Madame Web,'” she said. “It’s like, ‘No, I’m not breaking any silence. I just just talking.”
The film was set to start its own new franchise but according to Hollywood Reporter, Sony executives are feeling “gloom” after the failure. The studio is hoping its next Marvel collaboration, the Aaron Taylor-Johnson-led Kraven the Hunter, due out in August, will fare better.
The poor response to Madame Web marks the latest superhero disaster following disappointing reviews and audience interest for Shazam 2, The Marvels and The Flash.
Johnson will next appear in the two-person drama Daddio alongside Sean Penn and is set to star in Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives, the romantic comedy The Materialists.
