‘Madame Web’ Review Embargo Lifts February 13 – Could Signal Loss of Confidence in a Project

There are plenty of Marvel-based projects scheduled to be released in the next couple of years, and not all of them are under the MCU umbrella. Sony has been developing its own cinematic universe revolving around Spider-Man and his supporting characters, but unfortunately, that universe currently doesn’t actually have Spider-Man. We’ve had ‘Venom’ franchise that turned out to be a huge success, ‘Morbius’ that turned out to be a cosmic flop, and now it’s only a week between us and the release of ‘Madame Web,’ and if you were hoping to rely on critics opinion regarding the latest installment in the SSU, I’m afraid you won’t have much time at all since review embargo on ‘Madame Web’ will be lifted on 9 am on Tuesday, February 13. The movie releases the day after which leaves us little time to soak in all the opinions and make an informed choice.

It seems like a bizarre thing to focus on but such a decision could signal that the studio doesn’t necessarily believe that the project will receive stellar reviews and wants to give the critics as little time as possible to voice their opinion. Review bombing is nothing new, and perhaps the studio is merely afraid that a couple of bad reviews might start a chain reaction of events that could lead to ‘Madame Web’ being yet another box office flop, continuing the tradition set by pretty much every other superhero movie in 2023.

Regarding the plot of the movie, not much is known. The film follows Cassie as she grapples with newly acquired powers and confronts a mysterious foe, Ezekiel Sims, portrayed by Tahar Rahim. Ezekiel is on a mission to prevent three young women, Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), and Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), from developing spider-related abilities. These characters are familiar to Spider-Man enthusiasts, as they all gain such powers in the comics. Cassie must join forces with the trio to protect them from Ezekiel’s pursuit. ‘Madame Web’ will be apparently set in its own standalone universe, and takes place in 2003. The director was confident enough that the movie could stand on its own two legs.

And even though this sounds like an interesting premise, there are only a few reasons to expect this movie to succeed, and the premise aint going to cut it, especially now that in the last year, much more popular characters with established fan bases had cinematic flops.

First Box Office projections for ‘Madame Web’ are not optimistic at all. The projected opening weekend box office range for ‘Madame Web’ is $25 million to $35 million, with an estimated total domestic box office range of $56 million to $101 million according to Box Office Pro. For comparison Sony’s ‘Morbius’ known as one of the worst movies ever earned $73.9 million in the United States and Canada, along with $93.6 million in other territories, resulting in a total worldwide gross of $167.5 million.

Things don’t look all too well currently, but who knows, we’re still going to see the movie. What about you? Let us know in the comments below!

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