After being trending online thanks to its memes and jokes, Sony decided to re-release Morbius in theaters as they were hopefully capitalizing on its trend and perhaps reignite the audience to possibly check out the film again. Some fans see it as a ridiculous move and a lot are curious about what its performance will be like and whether Sony really did make the right decision. As it turns out, it's all just an online trend.
Forbes has reported that the re-release of Morbius in 1,037 theaters last weekend underperformed badly at the box office as it only earned $85,000 on Friday for a $280,000 overall weekend. It also only had a per-theater average of $270 which is the lowest in the top twenty. As a result, it only had a very small contribution to adding in the overall domestic box office numbers which are still at over $73 million.
Looking at the numbers, it looks like the popularity of Morbius is only in the online memes and the film being trending didn't translate to the box office at all. It seems that Sony misunderstood the online conversations regarding the film and they thought the trend and the algorithm would indicate that their decision to re-release will be a success.
It is not surprising that the re-release of Morbius didn't do well at the box office since it wasn't a success during its initial release to begin with and the online conversations regarding the film are only because of the memes and jokes and nothing of it says that they have interest on seeing the film again on the big screen. Maybe it could only help on its streaming and home video release although it might not turn the film into a cult classic since it is also badly reviewed.
Despite being a subject of memes and jokes, it looks like it won't lead Morbius to have a sequel or success in any other form as the film is still what it is and the responses and reviews will remain the same. This also shows that social media doesn't reflect the real world and Sony did overestimate the online trend surrounding the film.
Also Read: Marvel Fans Jokingly Demand a Morbius Sequel
Morbius is currently available to watch on VOD platforms.