The lure of a new comic book movie is still as strong as ever it seems, as Morbius dominates the box-office in its opening weekend. While Morbius has been slammed by critics, it seems the general public are ignoring the poor reviews and heading to the cinema in numbers, once again proving the disconnect between critical and audience responses to movies.
Morbius currently has an IMDb rating of 5.1 out of 10, a MetaCritic score of 37, and a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of just 17%, making it one of the worst reviewed Marvel-related movies to date. However, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at 70%, so clearly moviegoers are finding something to love that critics aren’t.
Those fans have been turning out in droves since the movie was released, with Morbius raking in a $39 million opening weekend in the US. Add to this another $45 million from various international markets, and things are looking good for the latest Sony comic book movie effort, considering the negative reviews.
This is not exactly huge in relative to other MCU movies, and is even less than the opening of Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage, which pulled in $45 million back in 2007 before the MCU even got going. But it does offer some hope for a movie which surely even Sony would have assumed was in trouble of flopping.
Surprisingly, the box-office returns for Morbius are actually higher than the animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from 2018, which achieved a $35 million opening. That said, we can’t see Morbius picking up any Oscar nominations, so you gotta pick your battles.
If you’ve seen Morbius and need some help understanding what went on in the chaotic finale, check out our ending explained guide for the answers.