It was only a few days ago that analysts claimed Morbius could debut as high as $50 million by the end of its opening weekend, which would come as a fairly hefty surprise when the buzz for the latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is virtually non-existent at this stage, with just two days to go.
However, damage limitation looks to be underway, with Sony offering a drastically reduced estimate of $33 million for Jared Leto’s debut as the Living Vampire. While that’s a significant revision, it would nonetheless give Morbius the distinction of landing the third top-grossing first frame of the year behind The Batman and Uncharted, which would be a minor victory for the studio.
The fact that all social media reactions and reviews remain embargoed until later today doesn’t bode particularly well for Daniel Espinosa’s comic book adaptation, but Morbius is at least going to deliver exactly the movie most people have been expecting should it wind up getting panned by critics.
One potential cause for cautious optimism is that Venom and sequel Let There Be Carnage hardly won rave reviews, either, but fans couldn’t get enough. The two symbiotic spectaculars scored 30% and 58% on the aggregation site, but the user ratings rank at a substantially higher 81% and 84%.
That doesn’t mean Morbius is guaranteed to walk a similar divide between critical and audience adulation, but one of the pandemic’s longest-delayed movies could really do with catching a break after the doomsayers have spent almost two years predicting nothing but the worst.