Friday Box Office: ‘Morbius’ Plunges Record 83% As ‘The Batman’ Tops ‘Suicide Squad’

Morbius dropped a record (tied with Dark Phoenix for a big comic book movie) 83% from last Friday to just $2.95 million on its second Friday. We are looking at a second-weekend gross of $9.9 million, a record for a big comic book superhero flick, a 75% drop from last weekend's $39 million debut. It will pass Fantastic Four and Dark Phoenix for the top spot at the domestic box office with a ten-day total of $57 million. It will have $129 million worldwide by tomorrow, so at least it will double its budget. The only reason this isn't a disaster is that it cost less than the first X-Men.

Morbius opening after Venom and Spider-Man: No Way Home is less of an issue for Sony than it was previously thought. We may never get Morbius 2, but we can still use Leto's Dr. Michael Morbius as a member of the Sinister Six. Kraven the Hunter needs to be delivered in January of 2023. The challenge with Kraven is that fans only wanted him to be a Spider-Man baddie, not Venom or Morbius. It might not be possible to deliver an anti-hero origin story and promise to kick PeterParker down the line.

The Batman brought its domestic box office to $354.2 million and $726 million worldwide on Friday. The global gross of Suicide Squad was $725 million. Not a great weekend for Will Smith. The Dark Knight Rises is the most expensive DC movie of all time, with an estimated price tag of over $1 billion, followed by Wonder Woman and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. We can expect a $6.45 million weekend for a new $359 million domestic box office, putting it a week away from passing Deadpool. It looks like a $375 million domestic/$825 million worldwide finish for The Batman.

The Lost City earned $2.565 million on its third Friday, setting the stage for a likely $8.7 million weekend and 69 million 17-day total. The rom-com is going to earn in 17 days what Sonic the Hedgehog 2 did in three days. It looks like a $90 million finish, but I think Paramount will keep this one in theaters forever, like the James Bond movies, to push it over $100 million. The movie earned $730,000 for a likely weekend of $2.66 million and 143 million dollars. It will pass Detective Pikachu next weekend. The Tollywood action movie RRR will make $580,000 in weekend three for a $13 million domestic total as it passes $130 million worldwide.

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