For some, Jared Leto’s Morbius movie signaled the end of the superhero movie era and its dominance at the box office. The Marvel comic book adaptation was set to map out the next phase of Sony’s own Marvel Universe, even including a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) crossover with Michael Keaton reprising his role as Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
However, familiarity with successful franchises was not enough to entice viewers into seeing the film, with the movie opening to a dismal 15 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, discouraging potential interest from all but the most diehard Marvel fans. While other superhero films like Venom (2018) could successfully weather less-than-stellar critical reviews and turn a major profit at the box office, Morbius could not attract such interest, even for a campy, so-bad-its-good watch. By the end of the year, Leto’s second unsuccessful comic book villain foray resulted in one of the biggest box office bombs, not only of 2022 but of the decade so far.
What was the budget for Jared Leto’s Morbius?
Reports on Morbius’s budget have never been confirmed and vary from source to source. Entertainment industry news publication Deadline‘s estimate is around the $75 million-$83 million mark but couldn’t be more specific due to differing sources.
In total, Morbius made approximately $167.2 million during its initial theatrical run, according to Box Office Mojo. In addition to being a dismal box office for a superhero film, especially of Marvel’s stature, the movie most likely struggled to earn its budget back, hence the shady information surrounding how much the comic book movie cost to make.
For a similar comparison, Minions: The Rise of Gru, with a budget of $80-100 million, made just under $940 million during its respective run. Since then, many Marvel movies have struggled to turn a profit as they had during the era of Avengers: Endgame, with many movie fans seeing this as a turning point for blockbusters and a sign of the times regarding interest in comic book movies.
Morbius was subject to countless memes about its apparent quality and bravery in pushing the boundaries of arthouse cinema, something the studio confused with a genuine interest in seeing the film. In June 2022, three months after its initial release, Sony re-released the film, likely hoping to capitalize off of its online attention. However, the film only made an extra $300,000 on its re-release weekend.
In short, a group of online trolls managed to trick a movie studio into marketing and re-releasing an aspiring tentpole superhero movie from a fake interest in the film, under the hopes memes would turn into money, and paid the price in major financial losses. Oops.