How Sydney Sweeney Turned Madame Web Into A Success Story

Published Oct 12, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Once head of Screen Rant's Star Wars coverage and co-lead of Superheroes, Tom Bacon now works with the movies and books teams. He's a lifelong fan of the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and loves franchises such as Doctor Who and Marvel. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon, on LinkedIn @tabacon, or on Muckrack under tombacon.

Tom has a wide range of interests, and he continues to serve his university as a volunteer chaplain. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he's into British politics too.

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Madame Web was hardly a success by any metric. Sony's Spider-Man spinoff disappointed in the box office; it grossed just $17.6 million in its opening weekend, and barely scraped past $100 million worldwide by the end of its run. Madame Web's performance, followed by the failure of Kraven the Hunter, led Sony to pretty much abandon the previous Spider-Man spinoff strategy.

Even the stars themselves have been open about how little they cared about Madame Web. Dakota Johnson has insisted Madame Web wasn't her fault, and that the movie became very different to the one she'd signed up on. But Sydney Sweeney has seemed even less concerned, in large part because she believes she turned the box office bomb into a personal success story.

Sydney Sweeney Has No Regrets About Madame Web

She Turned The Superhero Flop Into An Opportunity

Speaking to GQ while promoting Immaculate back in March 2024, Sydney Sweeneyt was unfazed by the mockery she'd received for appearing in Madame Web. "The movie is such a large movie with so many people involved," she said. "I was just hired as an actor and happy to bring to life a character that my little cousins are excited about. There’s no outcome I can control on a film like that, especially when I’m not a producer. You sign up for whatever happens and you take the ride."

It certainly hasn't hurt her career; Sweeney has gone from a series of flops to this year's box office hit, The Housemaid. Oddly, though, Sweeney likely sees Madame Web as part of her own success; "To me that film was a building block," she explained, pointing to it as a step on the road to Anyone But You. "It’s what allowed me to build a relationship with Sony. Without doing Madame Web I wouldn’t have a relationship with the decision-makers over there."

Sweeney considers herself to be a strategist, choosing her roles for business reasons rather than because of the story. "Because I did that, I was able to sell Anyone But You," she explained. "I was able to get Barbarella." She wouldn't even rule out a return to the role of Madame Web, choosing to be a lot more diplomatic than Dakota Johnson. "I think that if the story is right and you have the right team, I would love to."

Sydney Sweeney Has Given Madame Web A Surprising Legacy

It's A Building Block In Her Career, Not A Failure

Other stars have recognized Madame Web was a failure, with Emma Roberts blaming internet culture and Dakota Johnson hinting she felt it was a movie made by committee. Sweeney doesn't see it that way, though, because the box office doesn't seem to have been her priority; she went for Madame Web in the hopes of developing a relationship with Sony, giving her inroads for future projects. To her, Madame Web was just a building block, and it worked.

Madame Web was undoubtedly one of the worst Sony Spider-Man spinoffs. That said, it's relieving to see that even a box office failure can become a success story, albeit from a certain point of view.