Sony Pictures’ Morbius broke a box office record in its second weekend in cinemas, but not necessarily in a good way.
As reported by Forbes, Morbius grossed $2.95 million at the domestic box office as it entered its second weekend, a record 83% drop from the previous Friday. For the second weekend overall, Morbius is heading for $9.9 million gross. For a major superhero blockbuster, that would be a record-breaking 75% drop from the Sony film’s $39 million opening weekend. With those numbers, Morbius projects a total of $57 million over ten days, which would surpass films like Fantastic Four’s $56 million and Dark Phoenix’s $65 million.
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Despite those less-than-stellar numbers, Morbius earned a solid $17.1 million from 4,268 theaters on its first Friday, including the $5.7 million earned during Thursday’s previews. This led to projections of around $40 million for the domestic premiere of the Jared Leto-directed film, slightly more than the $39 million it made in North America. And that’s despite Sony’s own predictions that Morbius would gross a modest $33 million overall. In comparison, Sony’s previous installment in its Spider-Man universe, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, earned $11.6 million during its preview.
While Morbius had a solid opening weekend, it did so despite overwhelmingly negative early reviews from critics, with many citing the film’s “chaotic” plot and “visually disorienting” CGI as the film’s biggest problems. However, some also noted the Morbius post-credits scenes as a major issue, with one reviewer calling them “some of the worst post-credits scenes you’ve ever seen”. However, many have praised Matt Smith’s strong performance as the antagonist, as well as the film’s treatment of the horror genre. Currently, Morbius has a 17% “rotten” score on review website Rotten Tomatoes, despite having an overall viewer rating of 67%.
RELATED: Morbius Star discusses what her character’s big twist means for a possible sequel
The Sony Pictures Morbius film is about Dr. Michael Morbius, portrayed by Leto, who embraces transgenic vampirism to cure his rare blood disease. Not only does this give him a penchant for blood, but also superhuman abilities such as heightened senses, super speed, and the ability to fly. Created by writer Roy Thomas and designed by artist Gil Kane, Morbius debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, published by Marvel Comics in October 1971. While first appearing as an enemy of Spider-Man, Morbius later evolved into an anti-hero and has also featured in other comics as an opponent of the vampire slayer Blade.
Morbius was originally scheduled to hit theaters on July 10, 2020, although its release has been delayed multiple times, due in part to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The film marks the third entry in Sony’s Spider-Man universe, with the first two being Venom and its sequel, Let There Be Carnage. The first trailer for Morbius was released almost two years ago, announcing a possible crossover with Spider-Man from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically featuring the appearance of Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes/Vulture.
Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Morbius is in theaters now.
Source: Forbes
How Morbius’ opening weekend compares to Venom
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Emily Zogbi (997 published articles)
Emily Zogbi is a New York-based writer and news editor at CBR. Despite having a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry, Emily’s favorite thing to do is talk at length about the MCU and why the 2009 animated Wonder Woman film is better than all the others. She wished she had been a dancer. You can follow Emily on Twitter at @emilyrosezombie.
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