Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Morbius has defied all the odds and found success upon its home entertainment release, with the MCU-Sony crossover topping the video on demand charts. This comes just a couple of weeks after the superhero horror movie collapsed spectacularly at the box-office in its second theatrical release.
Since the initial release of Morbius back in March 2022, after years of delays and production issues, the phenomenon surrounding the MCU movie has been consistently bizarre and hilarious. The film received an overwhelmingly negative response from critics and audiences. Indeed, our Morbius review called the movie a “failure in the fundamentals of filmmaking.”
But, rather than condemn the movie to the pits of hell, audiences have embraced Morbius as something of a bad joke. The problem is, Sony didn’t realise we were laughing at Morbius, rather than with it. Well, who’s laughing now? The movie may have bombed after Sony made an error in judgement and re-released it at cinemas, but Morbius is flying in the VOD charts.
Fandango released its facts and figures for the week commencing June 13, 2022, and revealed that Morbius had beaten the likes of The Batman, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Uncharted to the top spot in the VOD rankings.
It seems that there is certainly a demand for the movie, albeit in the comfort of one’s home rather than being seen in public buying a ticket to a Morbius screening. Looks like it really is Morbin’ time after all!
The film suffered a lacklustre box-office return in its theatrical run, making just $163 million against a $75 million budget, so it’s unlikely we will see a sequel to Morbius, as much as Sony and Jared Leto push that idea on us.
But, we have to be careful. If these impressive VOD figures continue, who knows what Morbius will do next.