With the 97th Oscars just days away, celebrating the best movies and performances of 2024, the 45thRazziesis highlighting the worst of the worst. Among the films nominated for Worst Picture,Madame Webtook home the top prize.
Among the other films nominated for the Golden Raspberry for Worst Picture were the highly anticipated sequel (and highly disappointing),Joker: Folie à Deux; Francis Ford Coppola’s bizarreMegalopolis; big-budget (and bigger bomb) video game adaptation,Borderlands; and theReaganbiopic with Dennis Quaid. But it wasMadame Webthat came out as the winner. Or would that be the loser?
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The other winners (losers) across the Razzies' categories include Jerry Seinfeld for Actor inUnfrosted; Dakota Johnson for Actress for her role inMadame Web;Jon Voight in… quite a few films for Supporting Actor (Megalopolis, Reagan, Shadow Land, and Strangers); Coppola for Director ofMegalopolis; Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga for Screen Combo (Joker: Folie à Deux);Joker 2picking up a Razzie for Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel; and Screenplay went toMadame Web.
All told, those were the absolute worst films, performances, script, and direction of 2024. Coppola posted on social media that he accepted the Golden Raspberry for his trainwreck of a film, saying:
“I am thrilled to accept the Razzie award in so many important categories for ‘Megalopolis,’ and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!”
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ and ‘Megalopolis’ were Self-Indulgant Messes; ‘Madame Web’ was Just a Mess
Jokerwas a smash hit when it debuted in 2019, making a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and earning a Best Actor Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix, among many other awards. The film holds a 68% critical and 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so when a sequel was announced with Phoenix and director Todd Phillips (Old School) returning and Lady Gaga joining the cast, hopes were high. Unfortunately,Joker: Folie à Deuxwas a self-indulgent mess without much of a plot and bizarre musical numbers. It was a box office bomb ($207 million worldwide) and sits at a 31% critical and audience rating on RT.
Meanwhile,Megalopoliswas self-financed by Coppola to the tune of a reported $120 million, plus he paid for the marketing. The movie features a great cast, including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Audrey Plaza, among others, but the production was plagued with problems. Despite writing the script in the early 1980s and returning to it off-and-on over the years, the film didn’t begin production until 2021. And that’s when the issues started, including Coppola firing his visual effects crew and losing his production designer and art director. The film bombed at the box office when it finally hit theaters in 2024, earning just $14 million at the global box office. On RT, it holds a 45% critical and 35% audience rating. This isn’t the first time Coppola lost big money on a film he financed and directed; he went bankrupt over his filmOne From the Heart(1981), and the movies he made for the next 15-plus years paid off that debt.
Which brings us toMadame Web, winner of the Golden Raspberry for Worst Picture of 2024. The film was the second-to-last in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe series of movies and shows. It opened in Feb. 2024 and, while not a complete bomb, it did make $100 million at the global box office against an $80 million production budget, and not including marketing costs. And with the other films bombing (Kraven the HunterandMorbius), along with theVenomtrilogy coming to a close, Sony canceled the rest of the Spider-Man Universe movies.Madame Webhas an 11% critical rating on RT, while audiences seemed to love it more, giving it a 54% rating. But it was enough to earn the movie the Worst Picture of 2024.
Source:Razzies
Madame Web
