With The Materialists gearing up for its release this month, Dakota Johnson is once again dominating headlines — but not just for her onscreen chemistry with Chris Evans and internet heartthrob Pedro Pascal. The buzz surrounding her latest project has reignited a less flattering conversation: Dakota Johnson’s track record at the box office. While the upcoming rom-com might finally give her a commercial win, many are still looking back at Spider-Man spinoff Madame Web, one of 2024’s most notorious flops — and Johnson has some pointed thoughts about why it failed.
In a recent interview, Johnson addressed the elephant in the room with a laugh, saying bluntly: “It wasn’t my fault.” That line alone has sparked a media frenzy, as the actor shifts the blame from herself to the broader industry dynamics that she believes doomed Madame Web from the start.
“There’s this thing that happens now where a lot of creative decisions are made by committee,” she said. “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.”
About the movie
In Madame Web, Johnson starred as Cassandra Webb, a New York City paramedic who discovers she can see the future and must protect three teenage girls — future Spider-Women — from a villainous Ezekiel Sims. Despite a promising premise and a cast that included breakout names, the film bombed both critically and commercially. It went on to collect a trio of Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards in early 2025, including Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Actress for Johnson herself — a trifecta no actor dreams of.
And yet, Johnson seems unfazed as she brushed off the backlash with a shrug: “I don’t have a Band-Aid over it,” she said. “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?”
That devil-may-care attitude may come off as refreshing honesty — or deflection, depending on who you ask. Critics have noted that Johnson, despite her famous lineage as the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith (and granddaughter of Tippi Hedren), has struggled to find her footing post-Fifty Shades. Films like Persuasion (2022) and The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) earned praise, but commercially, her record is patchy at best. Naturally, now the stakes are high with The Materialists, a glitzy rom-com that might just mark Johnson’s rare win in mainstream cinema.