„Морбиус“ не е баш чудесно Деби од 39 милиони долари

„Тоа беше најлошата сцена од крајот на краиштата досега! Дали заборави на филмот во кој штотуку беше?“ _{– My son, age ten, in the middle of a Lewis Black-level comic meltdown over Морбиус’ terrible mid-credit scenes}

A $39.1 million domestic and $84 million worldwide debut for Sony’s Морбиус, complete with miserable reviews (16% and 3.8/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) and poor viewer reception (a C+ from Cinemascore) may be less “a franchise born” than “a bullet dodged.” Conventional wisdom suggests that the film will play like Fantastic Four (56 милиони долари од дебито 26 милиони долари), Темно Феникс (66 милиони долари / 33 милиони долари) и Бетмен против Супермен ($330/$166 million) and thus end up with an over/under $85 million domestic finish.

Maybe I’m wrong and Paramount’s Sonic на Еже 2 skews young while Warner Bros.’ Фантастични astsверови: Тајните на Дамблдор plays “for fans only.” Jared Leto’s Морбиус does have the advantage of being a user-friendly, no homework-required, 105-minute all-quadrants franchise/superhero flick. The best case scenario is that it becomes a second choice/consensus pick over the next month with a multiplier akin to самоубиството одред ($325 million/$133 million after a 67% second-weekend drop). That still puts Морбиус at around $98 million domestic.

It’s still another case of a film that opened better now than it would have in pre-Covid circumstances. Whether moving Морбиус from January 29 to April 1 did damage to the film in terms of pushing it farther from Спајдермен: Нема дома, it helped Sony’s Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg vehicle Uncharted. Morbius still benefited from goodwill for Отров: нека има масакр Spider-Man 3 верзија 2.0. Морбиус was supposed to open in July of 2020 before both of those well-liked crowd-pleasers.

И да, Морбиус did open 53% better than Фантастична четворка. Moreover, that Морбиус turned out to be about as bad as we all feared is less of a sting after the mostly enjoyable Venom 2 and the $1.88 billion-grossing Спајдермен: Нема дома. Of course, now there’s pressure on Aaron Johnson’s Кравен Ловецот да го покаже тоа Отрова wasn’t a fluke. Most of the reasons Морбиус opened with half of what Отрова pulled in October 2018 are the reasons it would have always done so even on a non-Covid timeline.

In terms of commercial appeal and likeability, Morbius < Venom and Jared Leto < Tom Hardy. Отрова earned, not counting China ($269 million) $213.5 million domestic and $587 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. A similar split for Морбиус on an $85-$90 million domestic total would give it a $235-$250 million global finish. The “good” news is that Морбиус only cost $75 million to produce. While the film sometimes feels cheaper in a way that, say, Ghostbusters: Afterlife did not, the film is another example of Tom Rothman’s “blockbusters on a budget.”

These recent $75-$120 million tentpoles (Jumanji: Добредојдовте во џунглата, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Uncharted, Venom, etc.) don’t require record-breaking grosses (or big bucks in China) to cross into profitability. It doesn’t mean audiences demand Morbius 2. History shows that even a better sequel will pay for the sins of this one (a phenomenon I like to call the “Tomb Raider Trap”). It does mean that Sony can probably feel confident that there’s an audience for these “Spider-Man villain origin story” flicks.

Крис Пајн даде интервју во кое се забележува тоа, како што кажавме со години, Star Trek movies should be cheaper, smaller-scale sci-fi adventures that don’t require top-tier box office. He reportedly turned down a pay cut for Starвезда Трек 4 уште во 2018 година, а неговите втори размислувања можеби се должат на уште поостриот терен за игра за идна филмска ѕвезда позната по специфичен лик на марки. Изведувачот was supposed to be a wide theatrical release until STX sold the domestic distribution rights to Paramount. The old-school actioner, about a former military man who is double-crossed by his private contractor bosses, earned a mere $550,000 opening weekend in 489 theaters. It is concurrently available on PVOD.

Focus Features го објави она на Горан Столевски Вие нема да бидете сами into limited release this weekend. Focus Features released the acclaimed (93% fresh and 7.6/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) Noomi Rapace-led supernatural chiller, about a young witch who kills a peasant and takes her identity to experience life as a “normal” human being, into 147 theaters. It earned $125,000 over the weekend for an $816 per-theater average. That’s a non-starter, and I’d argue the theatrical release is a glorified marketing campaign for its PVOD debut in a few weeks. That’s not a criticism, as it may be “the new normal” for small-scale films.