Box Office Discussion: "Mor" is Less

Morbius opens on top, but underperforms most recent Marvel titles.

Sony's excitement was understandable.  Venom had been an unexpectedly huge hit back in 2018, and the sequel did just as well, despite lingering pandemic box office issues.  Meanwhile, Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to become the third-highest-grossing domestic title of all time.  So why shouldn't audiences flock to see the latest Spidey spin-off?

Of course, Venom had been set up for mainstream, non-comic book-reading audiences by appearing as the primary villain in Spider Man 3 back in 2007, and Spider-Man is Spider-Man.  Morbius, on the other hand, had never before appeared in a major film before, and maybe the idea of a vampire anti-hero, particularly one played by Jared Leto, wasn't all that appealing to audiences.  The largely bad reviews didn't help much, either.  So while Morbius was able to pull off the third-best opening of the year so far, it is still the worst for a non-New Mutants Marvel film since the beleaguered Dark Phoenix arrived with a splat in June 2019.  This seems like a good bet to make $100 million, but just barely, and I wouldn't be holding my breath for a sequel.

Last week's champion, the action comedy The Lost City, slipped to second this weekend with a take of $14.7 million, a somewhat steeper-than-expected drop.  Nevertheless, the film now has a ten-day gross of $54.5 million and is still a good bet to hit $100 million before the end of its run.

Falling one spot to third is the year's biggest film so far, The Batman, which was able to scare up another $11 million for a gross so far of $349.2 million.  It still has a solid chance of hitting $400 million, but will need to stabilize against the onslaught of big April titles.

In fourth, Uncharted, the year's second-highest-grosser so far, took in another $3.7 million, for a total of $139 million.  It will likely top $150 million before the end of its run.  Anime hit Jujutsu Kaisen 0 brought in $2 million, to bring its gross to $29.7 million.

In what will likely go down as the most front-loaded film of 2022, the Indian actioner RRR fell a stunning 83% from its opening last weekend, to $1.6 million.  The thriller has a ten-day total of $11.1 million, and now seems highly unlikely to pass Baahubali 2 to become the highest-grossing Indian film in North America.

Actually moving up one spot from last weekend, Spider-Man: No Way Home survived both the arrival of Morbius and its availability for home viewing, taking in $1.4 million for a gross of $802.8 million.  In 8th, long-running hit Dog brought in $1.3 million for a gross of $60.1 million.

After opening on 10 screens last weekend, the trippy, critically acclaimed sci-fi comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once jumped to #9 this weekend, despite playing on only 38 screens, thanks to a huge per-screen of over $28,000.  It took in $1.1 million, for a ten-day total of $1.8 million, and seems poised to jump higher when it opens wide this weekend.

Rounding out the Top 10, retro slasher film X took in $1 million, for a total of $10.4 million.  Outside the Top 10, last week's newcomer Infinite Storm now has a ten-day total of $1.4 million.

In addition to the wide release of Everything Everywhere All At Once, this weekend brings two other major openings.  Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the sequel to the surprisingly well-received first Sonic movie, that was arguably the last blockbuster before the pandemic.  In this one, Jim Carrey's evil Dr. Robotnik has escaped back to Earth, and has brought along the echidna Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) to battle Sonic (voiced again by Ben Schwartz).  Meanwhile, as teased by the credits sequence at the end of the first movie, the flying, double-tailed fox Tails arrives to help.  An opening between $50 and $60 million is expected.  Also opening is the Michael Bay-directed thriller Ambulance, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as bank robbers whose getaway from a heist-gone-wrong involves hijacking the titular ambulance, where an EMT (Eiza González) is working to save the life of a shot police officer.  This seems likely to be competing for Morbius for second.  Will Sonic race to the top?  Could Ambulance be a surprise winner?  Or will Morbius suck the life out of the newcomers?  We'll find out next weekend.