Spider-Man fans have been anticipating the next step in Sony’s evolving Spider-Verse of live-action films, especially in the wake of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The ending of that movie left a lot of intriguing doors open for the future of the character and his various universes, which extend to the Venom series and the upcoming movies centered around Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) and Kraven the Hunter (Aaron Taylor Johnson). But Sony just revealed that the wait for Morbius will be that much longer.
The studio confirmed that Morbius has shifted off of its January 28 release date, and now will be opening on April 1. No official reason was given for the latest date shift on this origin story movie, though it’s likely due to the spreading omicron variant, and its ability to to prevent larger audiences from coming to movie theaters.
Oddly enough, Sony Pictures Entertainment currently is the studio benefitting from the mainstream audience’s willingness to return to movies to see big-ticket fare. Spider-Man: No Way Home has been shattering box office records since it opened in December, and now ranks as the highest grossing movie of 2021, the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie ever released, and the highest-grossing movie in Sony history. That’s one hell of an accomplishment.
But something must have alerted the studio to the possibility of the movie-going momentum slowing down over the next few weeks, so they decided to push Morbius to April, likely in hopes of the variant burning through enough people, and losing its impact on the general population. Sony could possibly face a similar decision on their next feature film, Uncharted, which is scheduled to open in theaters in February. Trailers for the video game adaptation were attached to Spider-Man: No Way Home, capitalizing on the presence of leading man Tom Holland. But a lot can change between now and February, so for now, Uncharted stays put.
Now we need to start worrying if Morbius is only the first domino to fall as other studios survey the landscape. Universal is unleashing the action thriller The 355 on January 7, while Paramount Pictures has the highly anticipated horror film Scream on January 14. Will either of them blink? Neither studio has a natural streaming partner the way that Disney and Warner Bros. have Disney+ and HBO Max. Sony, also, commits to theatrical exclusivity, which is why Morbius made its move. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the dates shift out over the next few weeks.
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