Actress Dakota Johnson, who played Cassandra Webb in Madame Web, explained why she was “not surprised” the movie bombed at the box office.
Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
Madame Web only grossed $15.3 million in its opening weekend. The film has grossed a total of $40.4 million domestically. At the international box office it has only brought in $50.6 million. In total, the film has grossed $91 million globally.
The film had its worst day at the box office on Monday, March 5th with a $245,00 haul and only bringing in $79 per theater.
Cassandra Webb/Madame Web (Dakota Johnson) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
READ: After Numerous Woke Box Office Disasters, Here’s What It Will Take To Save Hollywood From Itself
In an interview with Bustle, Johnson first admitted she was not surprised about the film’s performance. She was asked, “Does it bother you when people write nasty reviews?”
Johnson responded, “Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has.”
Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
When pressed to explain, Johnson elaborated, “It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made — and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out — decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee.”
She continued, “Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. 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. 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.”
Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste OConnor) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
Johnson would then share she has no interest in making another movie like 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.”
“But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, Wait, what? 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,” she shared.
Next, she added, “That’s why I have my own company. In a movie like that, I have no say about anything.”
Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) in Columbia Pictures MADAME WEB.
What do you make of Johnson’s comments and her revelation that film executives believe moviegoers are stupid?
