Sydney Sweeney just premiered her latest movie, “Immaculate,” at SXSW, and it marks her third high profile release in four months. She conquered the box office opposite Glen Powell in the hit romantic comedy “Anyone But You” (which has earned more than $200 million worldwide), and then she experienced her first studio flop with the Sony comic book tentpole “Madame Web.” Not that Sweeney is too concerned. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor was unfazed when asked about “Madame Web” being widely mocked.
“I was just hired as an actress in it, so I was just along for the ride for whatever was going to happen,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney starred in “Madame Web” as Julia Cornwall, an iteration of Spider-Woman. The comic book film has grossed $42 million so far at the domestic box office, and its worldwide gross remains under the $100 million. Critics also eviscerated the film (it boasts a 12% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 225 reviews). The movie became such a punching bag that Sweeney herself joked about it on “Saturday Night Live” (“You definitely didn’t see me in ‘Madame Web,’” she joked), while Jimmy Kimmel even had a “Madame Web” dig in his monologue at the Oscars.
“The people in this room somehow managed to come up with so many excellent films and memorable performances,” Kimmel said. “This night is full of enormous talent, and untold potential, but so was ‘Madame Web.’”
Sweeney’s “Madame Web” co-star Dakota Johnson told Bustle earlier this month that the reception to “Madame Web” did not come as a shock.
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised that this has gone down the way it has,” she said. “It’s so hard to get movies made, and in these big movies that get made — and it’s even starting to happen with the little ones, which is what’s really freaking me out — decisions are being made by committees, and art does not do well when it’s made by committee. Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them. You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms. My feeling has been for a long time that audiences are extremely smart, and executives have started to believe that they’re not. Audiences will always be able to sniff out bullshit. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to fucking want to see those.”
“But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie,” Johnson continued. “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. But sometimes in this industry, you sign on to something, and it’s one thing and then as you’re making it, it becomes a completely different thing, and you’re like, Wait, what? But it was a real learning experience, and of course, it’s not nice to be a part of something that’s ripped to shreds, but I can’t say that I don’t understand.”
“Madame Web” continues to play in theaters nationwide from Sony. Sweeney’s “Immaculate” opens in theaters March 22 from Neon.
