Over the last few weeks, Morbius has become an internet meme, and for the most part, they are hilarious. The re-release of the Leto film was re-released by Sony in hopes that the internet goofs would translate to a bigger box office haul. Let this serve as good news to allay your fears if you were wondering if the joke had gone too far.
The movie didn't fare well on its first day at the cinemas. Morbius only returned $85,000 on Friday, which resulted in an overall take home of $73.6 million. The odds are not in the favor of Saturday's earnings. The jokes were only about the idea of Morbius and not the film. Michael Bay was impressed by the spectacle of it all, even though their attempt to get in on the joke didn't work out.
Morbius' rise to a meme is due to the fact that no one had a lot of faith in the film. Sony is throwing darts at a wall to figure out what people want to see with Spider-Man's supporting cast, a roster that is kneecapped from the start because they inevitably have to acknowledge the teenage webhead in question. The comic books have spent years giving the character his own weird, gooey mythology in the hopes of giving future films enough material to avoid having Venom devour Tom Holland's Spider-Man. Morbius, Kraven, and Madame Web have not been given a chance to distance themselves from the arachnid in the source material.
Sony did well with Venom and Spider-Verse films, but both of those characters already had strong, built-in fanbases to begin with, to say nothing of what each of their films set out to accomplish. The Spider-verse movies have a unique animation style and genuine earnestness that puts just about all other superhero content to shame, and Venom has Tom Hardy talking to himself and getting beat around by a passive aggressive monster. The lead actor in Morbius was a musician. You can say whatever you want about Venom, at least it managed to summon a song to play over the end titles that eventually wind up on you.
It is with a heavy heart that I mourn in Morbius. As a joke, you died as a joke.
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