Emma Roberts has blamed “internet culture” for Madame Web’s embarrassing box office flop.
The 33-year-old actress, who starred in the superhero movie alongside Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor and Adam Scott, has finally spoken out about Madame Web failing to impress audiences and critics when it was released in February. The film focuses on Dakota’s character Cassie Webb, who eventually evolves into the Marvel Comics mysterious mind-reading superhero Madame Web.
Despite huge buzz around the female-led movie, Madame Web raked in just over £78 million ($100 million) at the worldwide box office, and the film’s opening weekend made just £12 million ($15 million). In comparison, superhero blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home raked in over £1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) at the worldwide box office back in 2021.
During an interview on the Just For Variety podcast, Emma spoke about the film’s massive flop, and claimed it was a good movie but was ruined by criticism on the internet. “I personally really loved Madame Web. I really enjoyed the movie. I thought everyone in it was great,” Emma began, as she heaped praise on her co-stars and the director, S.J. Clarkson.
“If it wasn’t for internet culture and everything being made into a joke, I think that the reception would’ve been different. And that’s what bums me out about a lot of stuff, even stuff that I’ve done, is people just make such a joke out of everything now,” Emma explained.
The actress, who counts Hollywood icon Julia Roberts as her aunt, said she’s grown a thick skin over the years to deal with criticism, and took aim at social media apps such as TikTok for contributing to the success or downfall of films. “Things work; things don’t work. Everyone likes to act like they can predict if they’re going to work or they’re not. And the truth is, you can’t. Things do badly, and then they blow up later on TikTok,” she continued.
Her co-star Daokta Johnson famously criticised Madame Web when it was released earlier this year, and admitted she wasn’t surprised the movie was a flop. “Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has,” she said during an interview with Bustle in March. “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.”