Despite the negative reviews and second-week box office crash ofMorbius, Sony is obviously not giving up on their Spider-Man-connected universe just yet. As well as now-filmingKraven the Hunter,Sony is also bringingMadame Webto cinemas and has now set a release date of July 2023, meaning that it probably won’t be too long before filming commences on the movie. The film was initially announced earlier in the year, and soonDakota Johnsonwas cast in the title role, but other than that, Sony is keeping most of the details secret and will likely continue to do so as long as possible.
The Sony Spider-Man Universe has not exactly lit up the world as far as the critics are concerned. While bothVenommovies at least got audiences on board,there was no such luck forMorbius, which followed up a decent opening weekend with a spectacular drop in box office numbers the following week. While there have been several reasons stated as to why the arrival of the living vampire has failed to capture the attention, it seems that most have cited the movie’s uneasy links toSpider-Man: No Way Homefor the immediate downturn in audience volumes after the trailers suggested more of a connection than there turned out to be in the movie.
It seems that Sony is already in danger of continuing that trend of appearing to try and piggyback off the success of the MCU withMadame Web, a character who has been described as having a solid connection to the multiverse and being similar to Doctor Strange. With the MCU’s immediate future being dominated by the multiverse, there are a lot of obvious comparisons to be made in Sony’s latest addition to their roster of Marvel movies.
Related:Madame Web: Who is Sony’s First Woman-Led Marvel Movie Character?
Madame Web’s Release Date Puts it in Among Strong Competition
The release date of July 09, 2025, is one that Sony would have perhaps been better off avoiding if at all possible to give the movie the best chance of gaining a bigger box office return thanMorbius. While the film is clearly being pitched as a summer blockbuster from the start, Sony has also made the clever move to slot it in behind their animated release ofSpider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, which is now arriving on June 2. However, the July slate for next year is jam-packed with some big-name movies that could preventMadame Webfrom having a chance to shine.
Madame Web’s release date puts it right in the middle of the release ofIndiana Jones 5andMission Impossible 7, which debuts the week before and week after, respectively. July also sees the release of Marvel Studios’Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is already hyped to the hilt as featuring the full debut of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror as Phase 4 of the MCU is phased out. Whether the unknownMadame Web, in broader circles anyway, can compete with all this or will suffer a similar fate toMorbiusis something that we will know next July.
