Morbius Tried To Get An Audience With Re-Release, It Did Not Go Well
Sony decided to attempt to revive the poor box office numbers that Morbius achieved by re-releasing the film. As you can imagine, it did not go well.
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In arguably one of the strangest marketing campaigns in recent memory, Sony thought it would be a good idea to attempt to re-release Morbius again over the weekend. This could have been because the film had turned into a glorified meme that saw most people making fun of it. “It’s Morbin Time” has swept through the internet, with artwork, videos, and more being used to hammer this phrase into the minds of anyone on the internet. However, though this phrase made Morbius super popular, that was about all that it did. The film has only grossed $300,000 in its return.
Normally, films that are re-released are often done so with expanded scenes, audio, or something else offered to audiences. This usually ends up with the film pulling in some decent gains in the form of 10s of millions of dollars. Sony thought releasing Morbius at the height of its meme popularity would have resulted in that same level of success. That was not the case at all. For some reason, the studio executives who thought it would be a success story didn’t take a moment to realize how terribly the film did. The 17% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes should have told them enough. However, audiences liked the film a great deal more, as the score among the public is at 71%. Also, the box office draw for the film wasn’t all that great either. Through its time in theaters, it was only able to land $163 million. Despite that, everyone has gotten in on the meme joke. Even Jared Leto, the star of Morbius. You can see his joke below:
Jared Leto is holding a script that says Morbius 2: It’s Morbin Time. Though there has been a ton of negative press attached to the film, at least the star of the picture can have a laugh about it. Leto is an Oscar-winning actor, after all. He may not have received critical acclaim for his time in this film, but he has been a celebrated actor for well over 20 years.
It is not likely that Sony is going to be bringing back Morbius for a sequel, although they are attempting to build an entire world that revolves around the Sinister Six. This group of supervillains was constantly going after Spider-Man. The group consists of different variations that usually had Mysterio, Kraven, Venom, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Electro, Rhino, and others in its lineup. Several of these characters have already appeared in the MCU or in the Sony Marvel universe as well. Leto might just reappear in another Sony Marvel entry.
Morbius may have failed in every aspect, but there is still an audience for the film, despite its shortcomings. The fact that it’s been made into a meme for everyone to laugh at, means that it at least did some things right. However, just because a meme is popular, doesn’t mean the thing the meme is referencing is popular for the same reasons. Sony might be kicking itself for thinking they could cash in on an internet fad.
