Given Sony Pictures' largely dismal track record with its Marvel movies, most fans didn't have particularly high expectations for Madame Web. So, when the movie debuted with 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned only $100.3 million at the worldwide box office, it wasn't a huge surprise.
Despite boasting an impressive cast and a director with superhero experience in SJ Clarkson (Jessica Jones, The Defenders), little to nothing about Madame Web worked and it's now destined to be remembered as one of the worst superhero movies ever made.
Still, there are bound to be some fans who love the movie - well, we think so, anyway - and we have some terrible news for them today.
According to The Wrap, of the 323 movies eligible to be nominated at the Oscars, 116 of them are not permitted to be considered for "Best Picture." Among those 116 titles is, brace yourselves, Madame Web.
Why? That's not entirely clear. In order to be eligible for consideration, it's said that "Feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024, and complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue. Feature films must have a running time of more than 40 minutes."
We believe Madame Web fits the bill there so it's possible the Marvel Comics adaptation fell short in regards to Representation and Inclusion Standards (RAISE) which, as the trade explains, "require Best Picture candidates to meet additional benchmarks for diversity and inclusion."
Other noteworthy exclusions include Bird, Woman of the Year, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and Mean Girls.
We can only hope - okay, not really - that Kraven the Hunter fares better because that is eligible. So too are Deadpool & Wolverine, Joker: Folie à Deux, and Venom: The Last Dance. We don't anticipate any of them coming close to that "Best Picture" category, though.
The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC.
Meanwhile, in another universe...In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing's most enigmatic heroines.
The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures...if they can all survive a deadly present.
The movie stars Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Adam Scott.
As well as streaming on Netflix, Madame Web is also available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD.