Madame Web

may have been a disaster of a movie, but it still doubled the box office for another forgotten Marvel тιтle. Now that both the Sony Spider-Man Universe and the Fox X-Men universes are defunct, with some characters rolling over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

, it’s worth looking back at the highs and lows of these franchises. And despite being one of the worst-performing Marvel movies ever made, Madame Web has managed to take a distinct lead ahead of an even less popular movie that came in the Fox X-Men era.

While X-Men and the peripheral movies released by Fox were generally held in high regard, not every release was a hit. On the contrary, the SSU released several тιтles, with almost all of them being poorly received. Despite this, both franchises earned hundreds of millions for many of their movies. However, this was not the case for every film, and while Madame Web is nearly at the bottom of the heap of Marvel movies in terms of box office, one other film earned less than half of its total box office.

Madame Web Is One Of The Lowest Grossing Marvel Movies In Recent History

Madame Web Was A Disappointment In Numerous Ways

Madame Web had a variety of factors that contributed to its spectacularly low box office return. The thing is, while the SSU was releasing films fairly consistently, the movies were frequently received poorly. Possibly this was in part due to the obvious comparison to the MCU, or the lack of a Spider-Man despite establishing a universe around the character. But while the movies were generally a mixed bag, they still had a decent audience who turned up to watch the movies because of their goofiness and the mindless fun they could bring.

Madame Web did not deliver on the mindless fun, however, because despite marketing the film as an epic superhero team-up film that would feature new Spider-heroes, the movie actually only involved one scene where these characters were in costume, in a dream sequence. Beyond that, the movie never even showed these girls gaining powers, and Madame Web suddenly becomes incredibly powerful despite a lack of practice with her newfound abilities. The result is a major let-down, and audiences chose not to see it.

Madame Web Still Made Over Double The New Mutants’ Box Office

The New Mutants Was A Uniquely Low-Performing Marvel Film

And yet, despite making just over $100 million at the box office, Madame Web still managed to more than double the box office for The New Mutants. Now, when compared against the budgets of the films, Madame Web was more expensive at roughly an $80 million production budget, which does not account for any marketing costs. The result was likely a major loss on Sony’s part. Meanwhile, The New Mutants had a production budget of $67 million, which does mean it was at a loss before accounting for any marketing.

The results clearly show that neither film performed well, and both were likely loss-leaders for their individual studios. Fortunately, The New Mutants likely didn’t spend much on marketing for the film, which is further evidenced by the fact that many Marvel fans are unaware it ever existed. But ultimately, Madame Web clearly managed to gain more traction than the swan song of the Fox X-Men universe.

Why Madame Web’s Box Office Results Are Over Twice The New Mutants’

But There Are Clear Reasons Behind Why The New Mutants Was A Monumental Failure

As mentioned above, Fox’s X-Men universe was winding down when The New Mutants came out in 2020. Fox had already been acquired by Disney, and while they would go on to connect the universes together through films like ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine, The New Mutants had actually been filmed in its entirety years earlier. With Disney courting Fox, the release window was continually pushed back, and when it finally did get to theaters, the film was not allowed to get reshoots or expand on the years-old storyline. Instead, the movie was released with relatively little marketing, and was left to struggle and die.

The MCU was ready to take back control, and while the movie had to be released, it was done in a way that it would largely go unnoticed. Then, when Madame Web came along, the movie is astonishingly goofy and silly, but it does have some highlights that helped to make it a fun and funny film to experience on the big screen. While the audience was limited, the jokes were fun, and I am glad Madame Web received more recognition and took home a higher box office, because it was significantly better than The New Mutants.

Upcoming MCU Movies

• 
  

  
  

  Thunderbolts*

  Release Date

  
  May 2, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  

  
  

  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

  Release Date

  
  July 25, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  

  
  

  Avengers: Doomsday

  Release Date

  
  May 1, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  

  
  

  Spider-Man: Brand New Day

  Release Date

  
  July 31, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse
  

• 
  

  
  

  Avengers: Secret Wars

  Release Date

  
  May 7, 2027
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Powered by

  
  

  
  Expand
  Collapse