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411 Box Office Report: Morbius Wins the Weekend With $39 Million Start

April 3, 2022 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Morbius - Jared Leto Image Credit: Sony Pictures

Sony notched another box office win this weekend though its Marvel IP, as Morbius took the top spot with ease. The Sony Spider-Man Universe film claimed #1 with a $39.1 million opening weekend, coming in right around the $40 million expectations that analysts had for it coming into the weekend. That’s a solid start for the latest film in the Sony stable, though there are some concerned signs that Sony will want to keep track of as in the following days.

While Morbius’ opening is a far sight from recent MCU openings like Eternals ($71.3 million), Shang-Chi ($75.4 million) and obviously Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1 million), it has to be said that this film was never expected to get close to those numbers. Morbius is a lower-tier character and, importantly, is not part of the MCU proper. It’s also a much less expensive film than your standard superhero epic; Morbius’ production cost just $75 million compared to the $150 million to $200 million budgets of MCU films, and the $110 million-plus budgets of the Venom movies. That is going to be important to determine the film’s profit margin moving forward.

Morbius was fighting an uphill battle for a couple of reasons. In addition to the lower name recognition of the character, the film had a hefty amount of negative buzz both from fans based on the trailers and from critics. The movie earned a dirt-low 17% aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes. More importantly, fans who saw it did not like it. The CinemaScore for the movie is a low C+; by comparison, Venom and its sequel both had B+ scores. The lowest CinemaScore for a proper MCU film is Eternals which had a B. The RT audience score is better at 70%, but even that is low for the genre.

Why does that matter? Well, take a look at the day-to-day drops and you’ll see. Word of mouth was not kind for this film, and it dropped 24% and 35% on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. That’s high for the genre and suggests that this may not have a ton of legs to it. That would suggest that the film will not have great box office legs. The plus side is that it’s off to a very good start overseas with a $44.9 million first weekend, giving it $84 million worldwide opening. Domestically the film seems likely to top $85 million to $90 million, and the overseas numbers should carry it to profit for the studio.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s The Lost City ceded the top spot to Morbius this weekend but still performed decently, bringing in $14.8 million. The romcom-adventure was down 51%, a very solid hold considering how much the film overperformed last weekend. The film is expensive at a $68 million budget, but it’s delivering pretty solidly to date with a $54.6 million domestic total and $61.6 million worldwide in a smattering of markets, with plenty more openings to come. The film is still on tap for around $90 million or so domestically and perhaps more if it continues to hold.

The Batman keeps chugging along, with the DC superhero film grossing $10.8 million which was down 47% from last weekend. The film is now at $349 million domestically and an impressive $710.5 million in five weekends, with eyes on $400 million domestically and $800 million worldwide by the time it finishes up. It’s a big hit even with a $200 million production budget.

Uncharted continues to be the success story of early 2021, with the video game adaptation putting an additional $3.6 million in the coffers. That’s down a mere 28% from last weekend. The Sony movie is now up to $138.9 million domestically and $373.1 million worldwide in seven weekends, a pretty sizable hit for the studio against its $120 million budget. It is still aiming for as much as $150 million domestically by the end of its run.

Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie was off 57% in its third weekend, bringing in $2 million. The FUNimation film is now up to $29.7 million domestically and $149.8 million worldwide, making it yet another hit for the company.

The Telugi-language Indian film RRR suffered a thoroughly expected steep drop in its second weekend, down 83% to $1.6 million. This was not a surprise to anyone, as Indian films generally drop heavily even when they don’t hugely overperform. It’s another strong performance for the country’s efforts in the US, currently standing at $11.1 million domestically and (per Deadline) over $100 million worldwide. The domestic total should end around $15 million.

Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to hang on despite tons of competition and being released on digital already. The MCU film brought in $1.4 million, down 30% from last weekend, to bring its totals to $802.7 million domestically and $1.891 billion worldwide. The Sony/MCU is still targeting a domestic total as high as $808 million before it exits theaters. The budget was $200 million.

Channing Tatum’s Dog eased 38% in its seventh weekend, tallying $1.3 million. The animal road-trip drama has totaled $60.1 million domestically and $72.5 million worldwide. The film cost just $15 million in production and is already a hit for United Artists, with a likely $65 million domestic total by the time it closes out.

X was off 53% in its third weekend, bringing in $1 million. The period slasher film has now hit $10.4 million domestically and $11 million worldwide with still only a couple overseas markets in play. No word on its budget but considering how A24’s business model goes, this should be profitable for them.

Closing out the top 10 was the very limited release of Everything Everywhere All at Once. The Michelle Yeoh-fronted action-adventure sci-fi comedy hit $1 million off a mere 38 theaters. That’s a fantastic total considering the theater count, thanks to adoration by critics (96% on RT) and positive word of mouth (96% audience score on RT). The film will continue to expand and it’s hard to know how it will do all in all, but it could absolutely be a breakaway hit for A24.

Morbius will drop from the top spot next weekend as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will dominate. The sequel is likely to start with around $50 million to $55 million. Also opening next weekend is Michael Bay’s Ambulance, targeting around $15 million, while Everything Everywhere All at Once will expand wide and could bring in another $10 million.

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN (Three-Day Domestic Numbers)
1. Morbius – $39.1 million ($39.1 million total, $84 million WW)
2. The Lost City – $14.8 million ($54.6 million, $61.6 million WW)
3. The Batman – $10.8 million ($349 million total, $710.5 million WW)
4. Uncharted – $3.6 million ($138.9 million total, $373.1 million WW)
5. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie – $2 million ($29.7 million total, $149.1 million WW)
6. RRR – $9.5 million ($11.1 million total, $100 million WW)
7. Spider-Man: No Way Home – $1.4 million ($802.7 million total, $1.891 billion WW)
8. Dog – $1.3 million ($60.1 million total, $72.5 million WW)
9. X – $1 million ($10.3 million total, $11 million WW)
10. Everything Everywhere All At Once – $1 million ($1.7 million total, $1.7 million WW)

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Box Office, Morbius, Jeremy Thomas