At the beginning of April, Morbius, the third entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, premiered on the big screen, but unlike the prior Venom movies, it failed to make a splash at the box office. In addition to being met with primarily negative critical reception, the Jared Leto-led vampire flick only made approximately $163.3 million worldwide. However, now Morbius is getting some extra time to increase that amount, as it’s heading back to domestic theaters.
For those of you who live in the United States, this weekend will be Morbin’ time! Exhibitor Relations Co. reports that Morbius is returning to starting tomorrow, June 3, Morbius will return to 1,000+ theaters. It’s unclear if this revived theatrical run will only last for the weekend or if it could stretch beyond that, but if you missed out on seeing Morbius on the big screen in April, you’re welcome to rectify that now. Right now, Morbius’ domestic total stands at $73.3 million, so it’ll be interesting to see how much more money is added
As for why Morbius is returning to theaters, that hasn’t been officially disclosed, but this does follow a little over two weeks after the movie became available on digital platforms. Since then, Morbius has spawned a lot of memes, many of which incorporate the aforementioned phrase “It’s Morbin’ time” (which wasn’t actually in the movie). Between this social media chatter and Morbius grabbing attention online in other ways, like when it was streamed in its entirety on Twitch, Comicbook.com speculates that this theatrical rerelease could be looking to capitalize on the flick’s internet fame.
Just like Venom did in 2018, Morbius took an antagonist traditionally associated with Spider-Man and fashioned an origin story for him that didn’t involve the Wall-Crawler (that Spider mural didn’t even make the final cut). Similar to his his comic book counterpart, Jared Leto’s Dr. Michael Morbius attempted to devise a cure for his rare blood condition involving vampire bats. While the cure worked, Morbius was subsequently transformed into a vampire, giving him abilities like super strength, super speed and echolocation, but also requiring him to drain blood from living creatures.
Jared Leto’s costars on Morbius include Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal and Tyrese Gibson. Michael Keaton also reprised his Spider-Man: Homecoming role of Adrian Toomes/The Vulture, but I won’t spoil how he fits into the narrative; you can read our Morbius mid-credits scene breakdown for that information. Behind the cameras, Daniel Espinosa directed the feature (and is optimistic about the future of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe), and Matt Salaam and Burn Sharpless wrote the script.
If you’re not interested in seeing Morbius in theaters, along with it still being able to buy digitally, the movie arrives on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD on June 14. Like other Sony movies released between 2022 and 2026, Morbius will also eventually make its way to Netflix, as well as Disney+ and/or Hulu later down the road thanks to a streaming deal struck between Sony and Disney.
