Box office: ‘Morbius’ opening weekend estimated at over $38 million

They say that a person should never invite a vampire into their home, but what about a vampire inviting a person into a movie theater? It appears that a modest number of viewers will accept this request, as Columbia Pictures’ “Morbius,” starring Jared Leto, spirals to the top of the domestic box office with a projected opening weekend of between $38 million and $41 million from 4,268 locations.

That’s a pretty modest opening number for a movie adapted from Marvel Comics. “Morbius,” the latest entry in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (which also includes Tom Hardy’s two “Venom” films and the upcoming “Kraven the Hunter”), grossed $17.1 million in domestic box office on opening day, a number that includes a healthy $5.7 million in Thursday’s previews.

With a production budget of $75 million, “Morbius” is a less imposing financial investment for Sony than the usual comic-action extravaganza. However, the film was hampered by numerous theatrical release delays due to COVID-19 and made its way into April 2022 after originally being slated for July 2020. This shift in schedule likely led to numerous marketing reboots, making “Morbius” a bit more costly.

“Morbius” will need to put up some decent holds to secure a financial win for Sony. The Marvel film was utterly savaged by critics, earning a dismal 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. diversity‘s Owen Gleiberman called it “a film where it’s clear that nobody sent the script back with the instruction ‘please add a script’ to be rewritten. As in: Spice it up, add dialogue, add something to make the film sound more than just a barely-colored chart.” Additionally, the film received a Cinema Score rating of “C+,” indicating that “Morbius” didn’t make much of an impression on the general public.

Also unfavorable for Morbius is the upcoming calendar month, which will see a significant amount of competition appearing at the multiplexes, including Universal’s retro-action extravaganza Ambulance, Paramount’s fast-paced sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Warner Bros.” Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Morbius will need to continue attracting viewers as new franchise games lure audiences.

Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Morbius stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a genius whose rare blood disorder causes him to turn into a vampire. The cast also includes Adria Arjona, Tyrese Gibson, Matt Smith, Jared Harris and Michael Keaton.

Paramount’s The Lost City was expected to take second place in its second weekend. The rom-com is expected to make $14.6 million this weekend, down 52% from opening frames, and bringing its total domestic earnings to $54.3 million. With a $68 million production budget, Paramount would probably be happier with a bigger gross for the two-handed Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum by now. Still, The Lost City does very well for a romantic comedy, a genre that’s all but disappeared from the box office in recent years.

Warner Brothers’ The Batman looks set for Bronze, with a healthy 45% drop forecast for the weekend. The DC adaptation grossed an additional $3.1 million on Friday, taking its domestic total to $341.3 million. Buoyed by a massive opening weekend and strong word of mouth, Robert Pattinson’s vehicle still stands as the highest-grossing release of 2022. An end to $400+ million domestically could be in sight.

Columbia Pictures’ Uncharted will likely finish fourth. The video game adaptation starring Tom Holland continues to show some pretty exceptional box office staying power. “Uncharted” hasn’t suffered a week-on-week drop of more than 37% over the past month, a trend that should continue with the forecast 26% drop this weekend. The action film was expected to take its domestic gross to $139 million by Sunday.

Finally, the anime adaptation “Jujutsu Kaisen 0” should round out the top 5 of the domestic box office with an expected gross of 1.95 million US dollars. Crunchyroll’s release has now grossed more than $30 million in North America, showing the engaged audience in the US that anime has made a name for itself in recent years.