Morbius, the vampire superhero movie starring Jared Leto, is the latest offshoot from the Spider-Man franchise, but it’s not faring as well as its predecessors at the box office.
Morbius, the vampire superhero movie starring Jared Leto, is the latest offshoot from the Spider-Man franchise, but it’s not faring as well as its predecessors at the box office.
The film had a $39 million opening weekend in the US, which is less than half the box office opening of fellow Spider-Man spin-off Venom, which opened at $80 million, and the sequel to which, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, drew $90 million.
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In comparison, the lowest opening for the latest three-film Spider-Man films was Spider-Man: Far From Home at $92 million. However, Morbius isn’t a failure, especially considering its $75 million budget compared to Venom’s $100 million budget and Carnage’s $110 million budget. The soft opening though isn’t a great sign for what Sony $SONY has identified as a deep well of Spider-Man-related comic book stories to be mined for movie fans.
Leto’s character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man comic in 1971 as Morbius, the Living Vampire, becoming one of Spider-Man’s more frequent enemies. Eventually, Morbius became part of the Sinister Six, a group of Spider-Man-hating super villains including Doctor Octopus, Electro, Mysterio, Sandman, Vulture, and Kraven the Hunter.
Those names will be familiar to longtime fans of the Spider-Man comics, but for casual fans, only a couple will stand out. That relative obscurity could present a challenge as Sony continues to try to build out the Spider-Man cinematic universe (also known as the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters, or SPUMC).
Sony’s villains could be fighting for fan attention alongside Disney $DIS, which has been an overall more successful Marvel partner both critically and financially. Disney’s latest roster of lesser-known Marvel characters are mostly set to debut via streaming television. The Disney+ series Hawkeye and Moon Knight have been well received. And in June, Disney+ will debut Ms. Marvel, with She-Hulk arriving on the same service later this year.
In 2018, Venom went on to earn $856 million globally at the box office, a performance that immediately called for a sequel, which also brought in a respectable $502 million worldwide. For the Leto-led project to approach those numbers, the film would need to somehow shake off scathing reviews from critics and a still fragile post-pandemic movie theater environment.
The one glimmer of hope for Morbius, and a possible sequel, is the fact that Venom was met with similarly tepid reviews, which were counterbalanced by stronger ratings from audiences. In the post-credits scene of Morbius [Warning: Spoilers ahead], the vampire anti-hero meets Vulture (played by Michael Keaton) who first appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
The appearance of Vulture alongside Morbius hints at a possible Sinister Six movie, which was originally planned for 2016 and then canceled during a previous iteration of the Spider-Man franchise. Despite that rocky history, the villain team-up movie could still be in play, depending on how Morbius fares in the weeks ahead.
