Outgoing Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra is defending Madame Web despite the harsh criticism the film received.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, published on Thursday, Vinciquerra, who is stepping down as SPE boss at the end of the year, insisted that the superhero film released earlier this year, directed by S.J. Clarkson and starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, isn’t bad and blames the press for its negative reception.
“Let’s just touch on Madame Web for a moment. Madame Web underperformed in the theaters because the press just crucified it. It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix,” he said. “For some reason, the press decided that they didn’t want us making these films out of Kraven [the Hunter] and Madame Web and the critics just destroyed them.”
Vinciquerra continued to explain how other Sony comic book films had similar experiences: “They also did it with Venom, but the audience loved Venom and made Venom a massive hit. These are not terrible films. They were just destroyed by the critics in the press, for some reason.”
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Madame Web review calls the film “an airless and stilted endeavor driven by a mechanical screenplay. … Its lack of imagination would be astounding if it wasn’t so expected … Madame Web doesn’t concern itself much with the kind of specific background that might lend its characters some depth. The film operates on a need-to-know basis, forcing people to explain themselves through inelegantly breathless exposition.”
Madame Web opened to $26.2 million, which was a recorded worst for Sony’s superhero films at the time. Kraven the Hunter, released earlier this month, debuted to $11 million in the domestic box office.
When asked if the Spider-Man universe needs a new strategy, Vinciquerra replied, “I do think we need to rethink it, just because it’s snake-bitten. If we put another one out, it’s going to get destroyed, no matter how good or bad it is.”
Madame Web currently holds an 11 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Kraven the Hunter sits at 16 percent.
