MADAME WEB remains #2 on Netflix despite all the bad reviews

Madame Web is trending rather positively on Netflix remaining two straight weeks in the streamer’s top ten. It’s a feat that is actually kind of hard to do in today’s age of over-saturation, and as it stands at this current moment, the movie actually sits at the number 2 spot on Netflix’s top-watched movies right now. 

Why this matters is because despite all of the hate from just about everyone in the media… the superhero flick is performing quite well as a Netflix top-watched movie. Its performance is proving yet again that when you break down Hollywood numbers people aren’t going to theaters for much in general right now, and when you’re looking for accolades or positive entertainment PR, oftentimes products outside of the zeitgeist of popular discussion are what’s killing it.

Madame Web being a hit on Netflix sort of makes sense because while most audiences would refuse to pay the premium cost of a movie ticket to see this movie in theatres, that isn’t necessarily the case for streaming. Atop of this, Netflix and Sony have had a very longstanding partnership, where Sony remains one of the only legacy Hollywood studios without a personal streaming service (they own Columbia Pictures). If it’s not obvious, most of Sony’s high-profile releases also hit the Netflix service first. 

As it stands, Madame Web was a box office flop both in revenue and in critical accolades. The movie currently sits certified at 11% rotten and is hated for seemingly putting in the least amount of effort (not unlike Morbius before it), and as some theorized, was only released because Sony wanted to keep the chain going of releasing a Spider-Man movie to retain the movie rights once every five years. Which includes the rights to all Spider-Man characters. This rumor however, may be debunked as it seemed there was a larger plan for all of the Spider-Man IP and Kraven The Hunter, is still to arrive as a Spider-Man IP movie this December despite all of the upcoming delays.

Atop of this, Madame Web was in a strange position where it was trying to be a very less than traditional superhero movie, which as we’ve seen from the box office performance of Eternals, is just something audiences are not that interested in (to be fair, I loved the Eternals). The movie had almost nothing to do with any of the source material, and strangely, was a lesson about the need to learn CPR, which even in context makes no sense.

That said,  Madame Web did have an entirely women-led team of beloved Spider-Universe superheroines with a cast that when looking back, was actually rather fantastic. You have indie darling and former 50 Shades star Dakota Johnson, the breakout Hollywood actress high in-profile right now Sydney Sweeney, and the new but very much-rising rising stars in Isabela Merced (Dora the Explorer herself) and Celeste O’Conner. You even have the Emmy-nominated Adam Scott and the amazing Emma Roberts, all of whom scream breakout and beautiful talents, so there was A LOT for the film to work with.

Where the movie went wrong though was it couldn’t stick with an identity. The movie spent less than 20 minutes of actual costuming up and superhero’ing and spent more of its time as a strangely developed horror movie spending most of time running from an evil Spider-Man. It also is notable that the editing, action sequences, and overall writing – was poorly received. 

Yet here’s the problem with all of this negative criticism and I question all of us are facing in this new grim entertainment reality where movies aren’t performing well in the box office, streaming makes no sense as business plan with expectations of infinite growth, and IP farming is a bit bloated, now even moreso with AI. 

With algorithms here to affect every aspect of creativity in the industry, including on our beloved industries in comics and physical artworks: Does something being of bad quality matter if the viewership numbers are still there? 

In my honest opinion of our new data driven AI future, the answer is… no. Quality does not matter so long as they’re watching.

And I think that is horrifying.