Dakota Johnson On ‘Madame Web’ Disaster: ‘Wasn’t My Fault’

Actress Dakota Johnson does not take any responsibility for the massive failure of the 2024 action film “Madame Web,” instead blaming “people who don’t have a creative bone in their body.”

The 35-year-old made the remarks while speaking with the Los Angeles Times to promote her latest film, “Materialists.” 

“It wasn’t my fault,” Johnson said of the film. “There’s this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee. Or made by people who don’t have a creative bone in their body. And it’s really hard to make art that way. Or to make something entertaining that way. And I think unfortunately with ‘Madame Web,’ it started out as something and turned into something else. And I was just sort of along for the ride at that point. But that happens. Bigger-budget movies fail all the time.”

The actress went on to claim that she’s unaffected by the poor reception.

“I don’t have a Band-Aid over it. There’s no part of me that’s like, ‘Oh, I’ll never do that again’ to anything. I’ve done even tiny movies that didn’t do well. Who cares?”

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“Madame Web,” a Marvel film released by Sony Pictures about an NYC paramedic who starts exhibiting signs of clairvoyance, was a box office disappointment. It earned just $26.2 million over its six-day opening from Valentine’s Day to Presidents’ Day, making it the lowest opening for any Spider-Man Universe film, including the universally reviled vampire-themed “Morbius” (2022), which made $39 million during its opening.

The movie currently has an 11% critic rating and a 53% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Films are made by a filmmaker and a team of artists around them,” she said in 2024 while discussing the movie’s lackluster performance. 

“You cannot make art based on numbers and algorithms,” she added. “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 bullsh**. Even if films start to be made with AI, humans aren’t going to f***ing want to see those.”