RIP Morbius

[Storyteller Hero]

So apparently Sonic the Hedgehog 2 AND Fantastic Beasts 3 are releasing this week. EDIT: Looks like Fantastic Beasts 3 got moved to next week, which may be even worse for Morbius in some ways.

This means that Morbius' box office take will be competing with not one but two popular franchises.

Morbius' production budget is reportedly $75 million.

Morbius' marketing budget should theoretically be anywhere from $25 million to $75 million, possibly more because of delays.

The theaters and the studios are not owned by the same companies, so box office gross is usually split in half for rough estimates of what a movie needs to break even on costs.

This makes $200 million a kindly conservative estimate for what Morbius needs to break even. It might be closer to $300 million to break even.

Investors don't fund movies to break even (or even close), so tack on another 10% as a bare minimum to convince investors of funding a sequel.

I am not sure that the Morbius theatrical run will even break $200 million given the circumstances.

This iteration of Morbius has a high chance of being replaced/rebooted instead of reused in the greater MCU moving forward.

RIP Morbius is my prediction.

 

[IvyDragons]

I don't really see Sonic the hedgehog having the same audience. and the amount on controversy over fantastic beasts won't create a big turn out.

Regardless, Morbius doesn't really resonate with me in any meaningful way.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Can you really kill a living vampire???

 

[Storyteller Hero]

I don't really see Sonic the hedgehog having the same audience. and the amount on controversy over fantastic beasts won't create a big turn out.

Regardless, Morbius doesn't really resonate with me in any meaningful way.

Well, all action-oriented movies are going to have some overlap, so even if they don't have the same exact audience, there should be significant shared audience.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, genre geek movies. Superheroes and Wizards definitely have overlap.

 

[Hex08]

Can you really kill a living vampire???

Re-kill? Un-kill?

 

[Willie the Duck]

I would say that the #1 thing that might kill this movie is whatever forces led this to being literally the second nerd-focused media site I've been to (first one being a youtube movie reviewer) that mentioned the thing, approximately as it is being released, and otherwise I would have no idea that it was coming out. I mean, can you imagine not knowing about a Marvel comic book character movie coming out at the height of the X-Men, initial 2 Spider-Man runs, or MCU? I mean, I get it -- Covid has knocked seeing the latest movie (or even reading up on and deciding not to see it) far down my list of priorities. Still, I would have hoped to have had to scroll past a dozen reddit articles or Gizmodo reviews or something (anything)

 

[James Gasik]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Marvel movies have a bigger franchise than Sega's Hedgehog with an attitude when it comes to movies. Now the real problem is what movies the youngsters are going to want to go see.

Morbius is not a major character, so they may suffer from a Guardians of the Galaxy problem...but then again, GotG is one of their better movies to date, so you never know.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

I would say that the #1 thing that might kill this movie is whatever forces led this to being literally the second nerd-focused media site I've been to (first one being a youtube movie reviewer) that mentioned the thing, approximately as it is being released, and otherwise I would have no idea that it was coming out. I mean, can you imagine not knowing about a Marvel comic book character movie coming out at the height of the X-Men, initial 2 Spider-Man runs, or MCU? I mean, I get it -- Covid has knocked seeing the latest movie (or even reading up on and deciding not to see it) far down my list of priorities. Still, I would have hoped to have had to scroll past a dozen reddit articles or Gizmodo reviews or something (anything)

One of the reasons you might not be seeing much coverage of Morbius is that it never generated any buzz in an organic way. If anything, when the first teasers showed up long, long ago (the movie's release has been repeatedly delayed) it didn't exactly catch fire, and now it's sort of limping into theaters in a perfunctory way.

Don't get me wrong, I hate it when a pre-release meta-narrative turns a promising movie into a punchline. John Carter, for example, was a completely cool movie from a super talented team of filmmakers that got framed in the laziest media corners as the next Waterworld, so no one gave it a chance. But--and I know this is totally subjective--John Carter actually looked cool, had interesting people making it, etc. With Morbius, I think the lack of buzz, or the anti-buzz, is deserved. Boring director and visuals, writers with horrendous track records, and Jared Leto clearly phoning it in. No amount of marketing could or should save this turkey.

 

[James Gasik]

One of the reasons you might not be seeing much coverage of Morbius is that it never generated any buzz in an organic way. If anything, when the first teasers showed up long, long ago (the movie's release has been repeatedly delayed) it didn't exactly catch fire, and now it's sort of limping into theaters in a perfunctory way.

Don't get me wrong, I hate it when a pre-release meta-narrative turns a promising movie into a punchline. John Carter, for example, was a completely cool movie from a super talented team of filmmakers that got framed in the laziest media corners as the next Waterworld, so no one gave it a chance. But--and I know this is totally subjective--John Carter actually looked cool, had interesting people making it, etc. With Morbius, I think the lack of buzz, or the anti-buzz, is deserved. Boring director and visuals, writers with horrendous track records, and Jared Leto clearly phoning it in. No amount of marketing could or should save this turkey.

Disney dropping the ball completely on the John Carter marketing made me very sad. That should have become a franchise. Dejah Thoris should be a Disney Princess now.