Bolstered in part by the slew of memes that box office flop Morbius generated, Sony made the decision to re-release the film in cinemas over the last weekend — where it once again flopped, even harder than its initial release.
Originally, Morbius was scheduled to be released in 2020, but due to the pandemic, the release was delayed for two years. The film is the latest in Sony’s attempt to expand on their Spider-Man Universe, which is unique from Marvel’s Spider-Man, but the vampiric antihero film only managed to gross $163 million worldwide.
Critics and moviegoers alike were unimpressed with the superhero film, and its Rotten Tomatoes rating continues to sit at a very low 17% from official reviews (although the audience score has that number flipped at 71% — perhaps due to its meme-ability).
A fan favorite meme of the box office bomb is a parody of the Power Rangers’ classic catchline, “It’s Morphin' Time!”
Morphius star Jared Leto himself caught wind of the “Morbin’ Time” meme and shot back his own jokey video in response.
Sadly for Sony, just because a movie finds itself to be in the top tier for memes doesn’t mean people actually want to go see it, and the re-release of the movie did even worse than the original earlier this year.
The Morbius re-release managed to gross only $300,000 on 1,037 screens according to Forbes. They added that, “Critics hated it and audiences did too, as shown by the C+ Cinemascore and 1.88x weekend ($39 million)-to-final ($73.6 million) multiplier.”
It’s uncertain what Sony’s reasoning for bringing the movie back to theaters could be: an attempt to cash in on its meme fame? Keeping Morbius in peoples’ minds? Or maybe they thought it would shine a positive light on them, being “in” on the joke that is their flop of a movie.
The blood-diseased accidental vampire flick likely won’t affect future expansions in the Sony Spider-Man Cinematic universe. It introduces not only Morbius but also Michael Keaton’s Vulture in the mid-credits scenes, leading to a potential future Sinister Six movie. Kraven the Hunter is also scheduled to be released in 2023, which is likely to be another set-up to the joint film, along with Madame Web starring Dakota Johnson, and possibly even a third Venom movie if Sony plays it right.
As for a sequel to the first Morbius movie? Only time will tell if Sony learned its lesson.
The post Morbius Memes Brought The Film Back To The Theater—Where It Flopped All Over Again appeared first on The Mother of All Nerds.
Morbius Memes Brought The Film Back To The Theater—Where It Flopped All Over Again
Source: Pinoy Inquirer News
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