The box office forecast for "Mrs. Spider" is not optimistic or may not be as good as the tragedy "Morbius"

Box office forecasts for "Mrs. Spider" suggest that Sony's Spider-Man film may not even have a better opening weekend than Jared Leto's box office flop "Doctor Vigilante: Morbius."

Sony owns the film rights to hundreds of Marvel characters through Spider-Man-related licensing agreements, which has enabled them to launch their own shared movie universe over the past decade, focusing on the Spider-Man character. The two "Venom" films starring Tom Hardy are the biggest success stories. But "Dr. Morbius" starring Leto in 2022 failed both at the box office and critically. Now, box office forecasts show that audiences are even less interested in the independent stories of the new "Spider-Madame" character.

Box Office Pro predicts that Mrs. Spider will take in between $25 million and $35 million in the U.S. box office over the three-day weekend starting on February 14, 2024, with a U.S. total of between $56.01 million and $101 million. Morbius opened with $39.1 million, and if the forecast comes true, the expected performance of the new film may be even more disappointing to Sony executives, especially considering the $80 million budget. The main problem is that these secondary characters have not yet accumulated enough popularity and fan enthusiasm for ordinary audiences to pay to see their independent films. Sony wants these movies to build a cohesive shared universe to rival Marvel and DC. But their strategy of letting these characters start with their own independent films and slowly link them together later seems flawed.

Cassandra Webber, aka Mrs. Spider in Marvel Comics, debuted in the 1980s as a blind, prophetic mutant with psychic powers and connections across the multiverse. She has been a guide and mentor figure to Spider-Man. In the upcoming Sony film, Dakota Johnson plays a younger version of Webber, who is not disabled. The protagonist investigates her future after a fatal car accident and gains new powers to predict the future. While dealing with these visions, Webber discovers threats and puts her own life and the lives of others in danger. Ticket information shows that the film is 1 hour and 56 minutes long.

Perhaps the best approach for Sony is to expand the universe through some derivative characters that are relatively familiar to the audience, rather than forcing secondary characters. At present, the risk is still very high. But all this is just a prediction, and the specific performance will have to wait until the film is released to observe.

Mrs. Spider is set to be released on February 14, 2024.