Bob Marley movie gets off to a strong start, but 'Madame Web' unravels

The sleepy U.S. box office finally lifted its eyes over the holiday weekend. According to Paramount Pictures, Bob Marley: One Love, a feel-good musical biopic, was on track to gross $33.2 million from Friday through Monday, for a strong total of about $51 million since opening on Valentine's Day .

“Excuse me while I light my joint,” read a celebratory post on the official X account for Marley, who died in 1981.

“One Love,” which cost about $70 million to make, landed in what has become a box office sweet spot over the past year — stories that feel both nostalgic and new — allowing it to dominate. weak reviews, according to box office analysts. (Marley has never before been the subject of a big-screen musical biopic.)

But for the most part, the film industry was anything but euphoric. This weekend's other new movie, “Madame Web,” based on a minor character from the Spider-Man comics, added to what has recently been a clear message from ticket buyers: the comic book character boom is over. According to Sony Pictures, “Madame Web” was on track to sell $17.6 million in tickets from Friday through Monday, for a total of $25.8 million since arriving on Valentine's Day.

Ticket sales for “Madame Web” were among the lowest ever for a superhero movie — a genre that has been one of Hollywood's most reliable moneymakers for decades. By comparison, “Elektra,” considered a failed Hall of Fame superhero, raised $12.8 million in the first three days of 2005, or about $21 million in today's dollars.

It's not like superhero movies are done. Rather, “the superhero universe is no longer expanding,” says David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a magazine newsletter on cash register numbers. The most popular characters will continue to draw audiences, he said, pointing to early interest in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” an upcoming superhero sequel from Marvel Studios. The first trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine, released during the Super Bowl, was viewed more than 365 million times in its first 24 hours online. set a record.

Received “Madame Web”. disastrous reviews; one critic called it the “Cats” of superhero movies. The film, directed by SJ Clarkson, whose previous experience was primarily in television, and starring an all-female ensemble led by Dakota Johnson, was also undermined by some of the same misogyny that perpetuates female-centric films like “The Marvels.” and foiled “The Marvels.” Ghostbusters” (2016). Social media users and some movie sites enjoyed picking apart “Madame Web” in general Especially Mrs. Johnson.

In financial terms, it wasn't a catastrophe for Sony — not compared to “The Marvels,” which cost Disney an estimated $220 million to make last year and only grossed $200 million worldwide. (The studios receive about 50 percent of ticket sales, while theaters keep the balance.) “Madame Web,” intended as a thriller for young women, cost about $80 million to make, in part because it didn't rely on lavish visual effects . (Her only superpower is clairvoyance.)

“Madame Web” collected another $26 million in a partial international release this weekend.

“Bob Marley: One Love,” directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (“King Richard”) and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir, sold approximately $29 million in tickets abroad, where the film also played in partial release.

Theaters have been ghost towns some weekends this year, thanks to big-budget films like “Argyle” that failed to entice ticket buyers, Oscar-oriented art films that haven't reached the mainstream and fewer wide releases. For the year to date, theaters in the United States and Canada have sold about $764 million in tickets, down 15 percent from the same period last year, according to Comscore, which collects box office data.

The slowdown was especially pronounced during Super Bowl weekend, when domestic theaters took in just $38.9 million, the worst showing for a Super Bowl weekend — excluding the pandemic year 2021 — since at least the mid-1980s, when extensive box office records began to appear. compiled, according to Comscore.

Several major films, including “Dune: Part Two,” will be released in the coming weeks. But the box office is expected to continue to struggle, in part because studios have dropped several films from the March release calendar as a result of the union strikes that halted production for much of last year. For example, 'Disney's Snow White' was once supposed to be released on March 22. Citing production delays, Disney pushed back the release to March 2025.

“This isn't another existential crisis in the industry – we've had that and we're past that,” Mr Gross said. “Film attendance has proven itself in recent years. This is a release schedule, a product-driven problem that will take some time to resolve.”