Jared Leto’s Morbius has opened up in theaters to a flood of negative reviews, becoming the third new installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe after Tom Hardy’s Venom films. Following two full years of delays to its theatrical release, the film only has a C+ rating on CInemaScore and is currently sitting at a 17% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Amongst various, simplistic movie-making issues that critics and fans have with Morbius, Spider-Man fans are also worried about the future of the character, especially after Spider-Man: No Way Home completed the web-head’s first MCU trilogy. It’s a mini-miracle that Disney and Sony have been able to play this nice with the characters, but the continual growth of the SSU puts the future into question. ADVERTISEMENT
Marvel Studios has a history of producing well-received Marvel films over the past 14 years; the same can’t be said for Sony with its Spidey-centric outings. Morbius isn’t being received well critically, but critical and monetary success isn’t always directly related. Morbius’ Opening Weekend Totals Revealed According to Variety, Morbius earned $39.1 at the opening domestic box office. This outperforms Sony’s $33M projection for the living vampire film but doesn’t live up to recent comic book movie success. Sony’s latest added an additional $44.9M at the international box office, equaling its worldwide total to $84M. The two previous SSU movies, Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage made $80.2M and $90M, respectively. 2021’s Marvel Studios opening weekends go as follows: ADVERTISEMENT
Black Widow: $80.3M Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: $75.3M Eternals: $71.2M Spider-Man: No Way Home: $260.1M
Morbius grossed less during the opening weekend than any Marvel Studios film. 2008’s The Incredible Hulk ($55.4M) is the MCU’s lowest opening weekend performer to date Sony’s latest added an additional $44.9M at the international box office, equaling its worldwide total to $84M.Is Morbius a Box Office Success? Early projections for Morbius were as high as $60M at the opening weekend domestic box office. As negative word of mouth and reactions trickled out before its release, Sony released a projection of $33M for the film’s opening weekend. This meek projection set the studio up for its latest Spider-Man spin-off creation to outperform its studio projection. ADVERTISEMENT
Unsurprisingly, it beat that projection by about $6M and is on track to be a $100M movie globally by next week. For context, the blood-sucking flick only cost roughly $75M to make, less than average for contemporary comic book movies. In a wise move by Sony, Morbius wasn’t a huge monetary swing at the box office. The studio heads played it safe with the budget and tried to bank off of non-existent connections to Spider-Man. Looking ahead, April is a crowded month at the box office. Just next week, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Ambulance hit the silver screen and will eat into Morbius’ potential earnings. Besides, competition at the theater and general word of mouth is setting Morbius up for a big second-weekend drop-off and an overall lack of legs at the 2022 box office. ADVERTISEMENT
Is Morbius a success? Not really, but Sony Pictures didn’t have much to lose with this one outside of fan trust. Morbius is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Jared Leto’s Morbius has opened up in theaters to a flood of negative reviews, becoming the third new installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe after Tom Hardy’s Venom films. Following two full years of delays to its theatrical release, the film only has a C+ rating on CInemaScore and is currently sitting at a 17% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Amongst various, simplistic movie-making issues that critics and fans have with Morbius, Spider-Man fans are also worried about the future of the character, especially after Spider-Man: No Way Home completed the web-head’s first MCU trilogy. It’s a mini-miracle that Disney and Sony have been able to play this nice with the characters, but the continual growth of the SSU puts the future into question.
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Marvel Studios has a history of producing well-received Marvel films over the past 14 years; the same can’t be said for Sony with its Spidey-centric outings. Morbius isn’t being received well critically, but critical and monetary success isn’t always directly related.
Morbius’ Opening Weekend Totals Revealed
According to Variety, Morbius earned $39.1 at the opening domestic box office. This outperforms Sony’s $33M projection for the living vampire film but doesn’t live up to recent comic book movie success. Sony’s latest added an additional $44.9M at the international box office, equaling its worldwide total to $84M.
The two previous SSU movies, Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage made $80.2M and $90M, respectively. 2021’s Marvel Studios opening weekends go as follows:
- Black Widow: $80.3M
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: $75.3M
- Eternals: $71.2M
- Spider-Man: No Way Home: $260.1M
Morbius grossed less during the opening weekend than any Marvel Studios film. 2008’s The Incredible Hulk ($55.4M) is the MCU’s lowest opening weekend performer to date
Sony’s latest added an additional $44.9M at the international box office, equaling its worldwide total to $84M.
Early projections for Morbius were as high as $60M at the opening weekend domestic box office. As negative word of mouth and reactions trickled out before its release, Sony released a projection of $33M for the film’s opening weekend. This meek projection set the studio up for its latest Spider-Man spin-off creation to outperform its studio projection.
Unsurprisingly, it beat that projection by about $6M and is on track to be a $100M movie globally by next week. For context, the blood-sucking flick only cost roughly $75M to make, less than average for contemporary comic book movies.
In a wise move by Sony, Morbius wasn’t a huge monetary swing at the box office. The studio heads played it safe with the budget and tried to bank off of non-existent connections to Spider-Man.
Looking ahead, April is a crowded month at the box office. Just next week, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Ambulance hit the silver screen and will eat into Morbius’ potential earnings. Besides, competition at the theater and general word of mouth is setting Morbius up for a big second-weekend drop-off and an overall lack of legs at the 2022 box office.
Is Morbius a success? Not really, but Sony Pictures didn’t have much to lose with this one outside of fan trust.
Morbius is now playing in theaters worldwide.
