Box Office: ‘Morbius’ Nabs Not Quite Marvelous $39 Million Debut

That was the worst end credits scene ever. My son, age ten, was in the middle of a Lewis Black-level comic meltdown over Morbius, and I wondered if he forgot about the movie he was just in.

Morbius, a Sony film, opened to $39.1 million in the US and $84 million worldwide, with poor reviews and poor viewer reception.

Warner Bros.' Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore plays for fans only, while Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog 2 skews young. The best case scenario is that it becomes a second choice/consensus pick over the next month with a multiplier like Suicide Squad, which made $125 million/$133 million after a 67% second-weekend drop. That puts Morbius at around $98 million.

It is another example of a film that opened better than it would have in the past. The move of Morbius from January 29 to April 1 may have hurt the film in terms of pushing it farther from Spider-Man: No Way Home. Morbius was helped by goodwill for Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man 3 version 2.0. Morbius was supposed to open in July of 2020.

Morbius opened better than Fantastic Four. After Venom 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home, Morbius turned out to be just as bad as we had feared. There is pressure on Kraven The Hunter to show that Venom wasn't a bad movie. Most of the reasons Morbius opened with half of what Venom pulled in October of last year are the reasons it would have always done so.

Morbius and Venom are popular in terms of commercial appeal and likeability. Not counting China, Venom earned over $200 million domestically and over $600 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. A split of $85-$90 million for Morbius would give it a worldwide finish of $250 million. The news is that Morbius only costs $75 million to produce. The film sometimes feels cheaper in a way that, say, Ghostbusters: Afterlife did not, but it is still an example of Tom Rothman's blockbusters on a budget.

These tentpoles don't need record-breaking grosses to cross into profitability. Audiences don't demand Morbius 2. History shows that even a better sequel will pay for the sins of this one. It means that Sony can be confident that there is an audience for these movies.

Chris Pine said in an interview that Star Trek movies should be cheaper, smaller-scale sci-fi adventures that don't require top-tier box office. It was reported that he turned down a pay cut for Star Trek 4 in order to get a movie star known for a specific character. The domestic distribution rights to The Contractor were sold to Paramount. The old-school actioner, about a former military man who is double-crossed by his private contractor bosses, earned $550,000 in its opening weekend. It is available on both platforms.

Goran Stolevski's You Won't Be Alone was released by Focus Features. The film was released by Focus Features and stars Noomi Rapace as a young witch who kills a peasant and takes her identity to experience life as a human being. It made $125,000 over the weekend and averaged $816 per theater. I think the theatrical release is a marketing campaign for the film's debut in a few weeks. It is not a criticism, as it may be the new normal for small-scale films.