The Worst Marvel Movie Is Actually Returning To Theaters
It looks like the worst Marvel movie is now going to find its way back into theaters for some reason. Really didn't see this coming.
When a movie leaves theaters and comes back, it’s often years later because it’s a classic (or a cult classic) and there’s a renewed interest in seeing it on the big screen among its core fans. What you don’t typically see is a flick come out, leave theaters, and then a few weeks later pop back up in select places. That’s just not the typical timeline for any film. But it looks like it’s going to be the case with Morbius which had completed its run but now will play in a number of venues across the United States. This is a bit weird all around, though there could be some context why Sony is opting to take this path with a flick that was pretty critically panned the first time around.
According to Gizmodo (via Comic Book), Morbius will now play in about 1,000 theaters nationwide for one showing per venue over the weekend? Why is this happening? That’s not totally clear with both outfits saying that Sony hasn’t responded to inquiries around why they are taking this particular. But there is some speculation (and it’s only speculation) that the studio believes that after a lackluster first run in theaters, there had been some groundswell among fans after it hit streaming. Whether the fandom was genuine or ironic is anyone’s guess seeing as how the flick was kind of a mess. But sometimes the messes become unintentionally comical and there’s still a fanbase that can rally around such a thing.
Morbius is the third installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe following the first two Tom Hardy-led Venom flicks. Starring Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, the movie follows the character in his transformation from a well-meaning, though hobbled, doctor into a living vampire with unclear intentions. The flick is meant to be part of Sony’s anti-hero campaign around traditional Spider-Man foes, something that has worked well with the Venom titles. It didn’t work at all here.
Morbius faced a number of different issues and delays over the course of its production, being continually pushed back because of the pandemic and other pieces related to getting it up on the big screen. When it finally happened, fans were treated to a borderline mess of a flick that failed to generate an interesting story, or really come up with ways to root for the main character. Critics panned it almost across the board and the Rotten Tomatoes score is currently sitting at 17% through more than 250 reviews. It managed to pull in about $163 million worldwide on its roughly $80 million budget, a number that simply isn’t good enough for what studios want to be tentpole productions.
Whether this limited return to theaters sparks new life for the Morbius crowd remains to be seen. It’s hard to imagine it has a major effect on the flick’s overall trajectory. And the future for Jared Leto in the Sony Universe remains a bit unclear. There is likely to be more of him going forward, at least in some of the other stories, though another movie in this franchise does feel unlikely at this point.
