Sony’s “Morbius” is shaping up to be neither a big box office hit or a major bomb after its $39 million opening weekend; but either way, the coming weeks for Jared Leto’s comic book vampire film likely won’t have any major ramifications for Sony’s plans with Marvel.
Though “Morbius” was one of many films delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it faces a much lower break-even point than its Marvel brethren with a reported budget of $75 million. With $84 million grossed worldwide this weekend, it’s in position to become slightly profitable.
“You can’t hit a ‘Spider-Man’ home run every time you come up to bat. Sometimes, singles or doubles are fine,” Boxoffice editor Daniel Loria said. “‘Morbius’ was a single. It did what it was supposed to do by engaging a fan base at a lower budget level than films with better known characters like ‘Venom.’”
But with a C+ on CinemaScore and mediocre marks from moviegoers on Postrak and Rotten Tomatoes, it’s likely that “Morbius” will have a similar box office trajectory to many tepidly received horror films, suffering a large drop as non-hardcore audiences skip the film in favor of upcoming titles like “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and “Fantastic Beasts 3.”
In an era where every comic book movie is expected to have some connection to a future title — be it a sequel, spinoff or cinematic universe — a failed attempt to introduce a lesser-known character to a wider audience could raise questions about whether a studio’s long-term franchise plans may be altered. “Morbius” hinted at such plans to introduce its vampiric protagonist to other Marvel characters with a post-credit scene that teases a team-up with “Spider-Man: Homecoming” villain Adrian “Vulture” Toomes, played by Michael Keaton.
Though such a team-up likely won’t happen given these numbers — at least not in a direct sequel — the history of Michael Morbius in the Marvel comics suggests that he was never set to cross paths with “Spider-Man” or the MCU-adjacent series that Sony is building around Tom Holland’s incarnation of the friendly neighborhood webslinger.
Though Morbius was introduced in 1971 as a Spidey villain and would over the decades encounter him and other Marvel heroes like Blade, Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange as both friend and foe, much of the character’s history in the comics has been in his own standalone titles as a tragic antihero trying to steer his bloodlust towards slaying more malicious figures while finding a cure for his vampirism. Sony’s film, directed by Daniel Espinosa, is more in the spirit of these comics than his run-ins with Spider-Man.
By contrast, Sony’s next Marvel films in development, “Kraven the Hunter” and “Madame Web,” are much more likely to cross over with Peter Parker at some point down the line. “Kraven” — which stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe and is set for an early 2023 release — is based on one of the members of Spidey’s infamous rogues gallery, The Sinister Six. “Madame Web,” which will star Dakota Johnson, will tell the story of one of Spider-Man’s closest allies.
But studio insiders tell TheWrap that not every Marvel film Sony releases may have a connection to future “Spider-Man” titles, as Sony has rights to hundreds of Marvel characters that could be developed into their own standalone stories with many having much looser connections to the web of Spidey comic continuity than Kraven.
Such an approach would be closer to how studios commonly approached comic book films in the mid 2000s prior to the creation of the MCU and which Warner Bros. brought back to great success in 2019 with “Joker,” a film that grossed over $1 billion without any hints that Joaquin Phoenix would show up in a future film to face off with Batman.
While it could be a good way for Sony to stretch its comic book franchise folio beyond its MCU partnership with Disney and Marvel Studios — especially if they come at a budget level like “Morbius” — future standalone films will need to have better word-of-mouth than “Morbius,” lest such films lose the “can’t-miss” status that these blockbusters live and die upon.