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Sony’s comic book tentpole “Morbius” is one of the biggest flops of 2022. The film, starring Jared Leto in the title role, hoped to pull in audiences on the back of record-breaker “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” as it’s set in the same extended superhero universe. And yet, critics and audiences mostly ignored “Morbius” when it opened April 1. The film only grossed $73 million in the U.S. and came in well below the $200 million mark worldwide with just $163 million, miserable totals for a comic book movie in today’s market.
Matt Smith, who starred in “Morbius” as the villainous Lucien/Milo, isn’t letting the film’s reception phase him too much. “Morbius” is hardly the first studio tentpole starring Smith that has backfired with critics and fans. The “Doctor Who” veteran also had a role in “Terminator Genysis,” the 2015 box office bomb. Smith has learned how to shake off a flop.
“Yeah, it was thrown under the bus,” Smith told Rolling Stone UK about “Morbius” tanking. “But you just have to roll with it. What else are you gonna do? It’s a film, at the end of the day, we’re not saving lives. For whatever reason, it didn’t quite work out and… It is what it is.”
Variety critic Owen Gleiberman panned “Morbius” in his review, writing, “It’s neither original nor good…’Morbius’ is a generic Marvel movie, right down to Leto’s one-note scientist-turned-vampire. The entire movie, directed by Daniel Espinosa from a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, is generic — naggingly, almost jarringly so. You watch it and think, ‘This is what now passes for a new Marvel chapter?'”
Sony has not yet announced a second “Morbius” movie, which seems unlikely given the box office returns to the first movie. A post-credits scene at the end of the movie teased Leto would return to the role, but no concrete plans have been confirmed.
