Morbius is the latest in a series of Sony/Marvel crossovers set in the Spider-Man universe. The movie follows Dr. Michael Morbius, played by Jared Leto, as he attempts to cure himself and his best friend Milo, played by Matt Smith, of their shared blood disease. Michael turns himself into a genetic vampire and finds himself not only cured of his illness, but now also a superhuman. The cure doesn’t come without a cost – Michael now has an unquenchable thirst for blood.
Michael warns Milo to not take the “cure,” but Milo ignores him and joins his childhood friend as a bat-human hybrid. Viewers are then left with a battle of the vampires, with Milo fighting for increased power and Michael trying to stop the monster he has created.
During Morbius’s opening weekend, it was a big surprise to find a lot of movie theaters practically empty. This may be due to the negative reviews that Morbius received prior to its release, with many critics saying to avoid the movie because of its flat characters, confusing plot holes, and cringeworthy visual effects.
Morbius hit theaters last weekend, and while it managed to cross $100 million at the worldwide box office, the Sony/Marvel movie had a drastic drop in ticket sales on its second weekend. This isn’t a huge shock considering how harsh critics have been in their reviews of the movie. Currently, Morbius has a 17 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook.com’s Spencer Perry gave the feature a 1 out of 5 and called it “lazy” and “incomprehensible.”
According to Forbes, Morbius only earned $2.95 million on its second Friday in theaters, tying with Dark Phoenix for a record drop in a blockbuster movie. Morbius dropped 83 percent from last Friday, and it’s looking like it will earn $9.9 million on its second weekend, another record-breaking drop for a comic book movie. Forbes points out that it will at least beat Fantastic Four ($56 million) and Dark Phoenix ($65 million) for a domestic finish of around $72 million. The movie cost $75 million to make, so the worldwide box office, which is set to reach $129 million by the end of the weekend, will keep the movie safe from being considered a complete flop.
While Morbius will definitely be a disappointment for Sony, the recent success of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home won’t affect the company’s future plans. It’s unlikely that a Morbius sequel will happen. Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web, two other characters in the Spider-Man universe, should continue as planned and will likely have films released soon in the future.
Bryn Bijur, a freshman computer science major, said “I was disappointed, I feel as if there was a lot of hype to this movie, especially since I am a Marvel/Spider-Man fan, it was exciting. But then I get to the theater and it’s practically empty, and the movie just did not make sense, had random plot holes, and was overall not enjoyable. Maybe my expectations were too high though.”
Bijur was one of many fans who were excited for Morbius, only to be disappointed after seeing the film in theaters. Many critics who previewed the movie posted their negative reviews on TikTok, but a lot of fans still gave the movie a chance, only to discover that the reviews were accurate. Morbius could have been a far better movie, especially since its release was delayed by a few months and did not premiere until much later than its anticipated release date.
