Vampiric Spidey Villain ‘Morbius’ To Bite Out A Chunk Of The Box Office, ‘CODA’ Gets Re-Release Following Oscar Wins
The month of March will finish with a total box office gross of around $575-$580 million, and more than half of that came from The Batman. That practically ties March with last July for the third best month since the beginning of the pandemic (after last October and December), but, beside the Dark Knight, it had little new content, save the late-in-the-month release (3/25) of the Channing Tatum\Sandra Bullock adventure/rom-com, The Lost City, to support it. Most of March's backup bucks came from February’s holdovers. While the month of April lacks a mega-release a la The Batman, it has what March did not, which is a steady supply of solid titles coming out pretty much every week. A few big franchise releases are in store, including new Harry Potter and Sonic the Hedgehog films, and first up is Morbius, the newest entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (or SSU).
Morbius stars Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, a scientist who attempts to cure his rare blood disease with the help of some vampire bat DNA, and he inadvertently becomes a living vampire in the process. Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal and Tyrese Gibson co-star, and Daniel Espinosa (Easy Money, Safe House, Life) directs. The villain/antihero was introduced in the comic books in the 1970s, and this is the first time the character has appeared in a film. It opens in most of the world this weekend following numerous delays, with its originally planned July 2020 release getting nixed due to the pandemic.
Morbius is the third SSU film after the two Venom films (though it would have been the second had it kept its original release date), and it is the first to not focus on an already well established character. While Spider-Man just might be the industry’s biggest cash cow around, it is hard to say whether the Spidey fever can trickle down to this dark, horror-tinged film with only loose connections to the MCU or the Venom films. Despite the connective tissue with those other films, nobody is expecting an opening anywhere near the first Venom’s $80.2 million or the sequel’s $90 million. A better comp is the Harley Quinn solo film Birds of Prey, which opened to $33 million right before the pandemic. It could get a nice boost from being the first MCU/SSU-related release since Spider-Man: No Way Home (which 15 weeks later is somehow still in the top 10), and the IMAX and other PLF (Premium Large Format) screens should help its gross as well, but the relatively soft traffic levels on IMDb make us wary of predicting Uncharted numbers (that film opened to $44 million, also likely benefiting from a Spider-boost).
The long term prospects for the film could depend on whether or not audiences enjoy it more than critics do. It is currently at 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, though we should note that mostly negative reviews did little to discourage audiences from showing up to Venom (30% on RT). In the film’s favor is its $75 million budget, which is considerably lower than the average Marvel adaptation. However the film performs, the SSU will get more chances to lure audiences. Kraven the Hunter is scheduled for January 13, 2023, and a number of other projects are in the works.
Making a splash in the specialty box office this weekend is the 600+ theater re-release of CODA following its Oscar wins on Sunday for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (for Troy Kotsur), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Sian Heder, who also directed). For many, this will be the first chance to see the Apple release on the big screen. The company bought the film for $25 million after its Sundance 2021 premiere, and they gave it a small run in around 50 theaters last August on the same day they launched it on Apple TV+. CODA, which stands for “Child of Deaf Adults,” tells the story of a teenage girl who is the only member of her family who can hear.
Also opening in limited release is Focus' You Won’t Be Alone, a Macedonian language arthouse horror film starring Sara Klimoska, Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, and Félix Maritaud. The film premiered at Sundance and is at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Morbius stars Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, a scientist who attempts to cure his rare blood disease with the help of some vampire bat DNA, and he inadvertently becomes a living vampire in the process. Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal and Tyrese Gibson co-star, and Daniel Espinosa (Easy Money, Safe House, Life) directs. The villain/antihero was introduced in the comic books in the 1970s, and this is the first time the character has appeared in a film. It opens in most of the world this weekend following numerous delays, with its originally planned July 2020 release getting nixed due to the pandemic.
Morbius is the third SSU film after the two Venom films (though it would have been the second had it kept its original release date), and it is the first to not focus on an already well established character. While Spider-Man just might be the industry’s biggest cash cow around, it is hard to say whether the Spidey fever can trickle down to this dark, horror-tinged film with only loose connections to the MCU or the Venom films. Despite the connective tissue with those other films, nobody is expecting an opening anywhere near the first Venom’s $80.2 million or the sequel’s $90 million. A better comp is the Harley Quinn solo film Birds of Prey, which opened to $33 million right before the pandemic. It could get a nice boost from being the first MCU/SSU-related release since Spider-Man: No Way Home (which 15 weeks later is somehow still in the top 10), and the IMAX and other PLF (Premium Large Format) screens should help its gross as well, but the relatively soft traffic levels on IMDb make us wary of predicting Uncharted numbers (that film opened to $44 million, also likely benefiting from a Spider-boost).
The long term prospects for the film could depend on whether or not audiences enjoy it more than critics do. It is currently at 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, though we should note that mostly negative reviews did little to discourage audiences from showing up to Venom (30% on RT). In the film’s favor is its $75 million budget, which is considerably lower than the average Marvel adaptation. However the film performs, the SSU will get more chances to lure audiences. Kraven the Hunter is scheduled for January 13, 2023, and a number of other projects are in the works.
Making a splash in the specialty box office this weekend is the 600+ theater re-release of CODA following its Oscar wins on Sunday for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (for Troy Kotsur), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Sian Heder, who also directed). For many, this will be the first chance to see the Apple release on the big screen. The company bought the film for $25 million after its Sundance 2021 premiere, and they gave it a small run in around 50 theaters last August on the same day they launched it on Apple TV+. CODA, which stands for “Child of Deaf Adults,” tells the story of a teenage girl who is the only member of her family who can hear.
Also opening in limited release is Focus' You Won’t Be Alone, a Macedonian language arthouse horror film starring Sara Klimoska, Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, and Félix Maritaud. The film premiered at Sundance and is at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
