It’s only been a few weeks since Hollywood insiders were trying to ease rumors of tension between Sony Pictures and the star of Madame Web, Dakota Johnson. Damage control can only go so far, however.
There were rumblings on social media that Johnson had been very unhappy with the creative direction of Madame Web from the second she had signed on to the project. The rumors got hotter when Johnson went on her promotional tour for the film and rarely had anything positive to say about it.
“I haven’t seen the movie,” the actress said during an interview with Magic Radio. “I probably won’t. I don’t know when I’ll see it. Someday.”
In an interview with TheWrap, Johnson disclosed that the Madame Web which moviegoers ultimately tore apart was far removed from the one originally pitched to her. “There were drastic changes, and I can’t even tell you what they were,” Johnson said at the time.
The actress further fed the rumor mill when she disparaged the film on Saturday Night Live.
“I have a new movie coming out,” Johnson prefaced in her opening monologue. “It’s called Madame Web. It is in the Marvel Universe, and it also stars Sydney Sweeney, so it’s kind of like if A.I. generated your boyfriend’s perfect movie.”
According to information collected by The Numbers, Madame Web has grossed 96 million dollars at the box office. With a production budget of 80 million dollars — and, keeping in mind that it needs to double its production budget in order to begin making a profit — it is unlikely that the Spider-Man spin-off will come close to braking even.
Making matters even worse, Sony Pictures executives are reportedly displeased with Madame Web‘s lead actress’ behavior during the press tour.
Per the Daily Mail Online, Sony Pictures executives believe that Johnson is publicly dragging the film without taking any responsibility for its failure. “Lots of people at Sony are questioning her star power, and how she reacted to this failure will likely come back to haunt her,” an inside source told the outlet.
The source continued, “Not every movie is going to work, but a lot of hard work is put towards even bad movies and for your star to s**t on it is a bad look.”
“Dakota is being looked down on over her talk of the film because everyone in the production is thinking, what if the movie was still the same but also a box office gem?” the source theorized, adding, “She would be talking about sequels and probably praising herself over its good fortune.”
The condemnation from Sony sparked over a recent interview that Johnson did with Bustle, whereing Johnson proclaimed that she would likely not do another superhero film after her experience with the financial flop that was Madame Web.
“But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie. I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again because I don’t make sense in that world. And I know that now,” the actress declared.
Johnson further explained, “But it was a real learning experience, and of course it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”
The deathblow for Johnson was calling out the way that studios creatively ruin films and make them unwatchable in the eyes of the public.
“Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them,” the Madame Web star continued. “You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not.”
Johnson stated that “Audiences will always be able to sniff out bulls**t. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to f***ing want to see those.”
As of writing, Madame Web stands at just 12% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sony’s latest superhero endeavor fared slightly better with moviegoers, with a 57% audience score. Similarly, the Dakota Johnson-led movie has a 26/100 score on Metacritic, and is averaging 3.7/10 on IMDb.