2022 finally saw the release of the long-delayed Sony movie Morbius, though, for audiences and critics, it definitely wasn’t worth the wait. Clearly cut to shreds in the editing room, and with what was there less than beloved, Morbius was a critical and financial failure. This dubious quality has seen it become the stuff of memes, with fans turning the movie into an even bigger joke than it already was.
Likely sensing the “movement” behind the movie, Sony is now releasing it in theaters again. That is a hilarious joke, but it isn’t as funny as Sony thinks. Morbius will still fail to make anywhere close to “morbillion” dollars, and anything else getting built off of it is questionable at most. Here’s how Sony’s most hated film morbed into its biggest joke, one the studio wasn’t in on.
Morbius’ Re-Release Is Thanks to Hilarious Memes
Since the movie came out, Morbius has been the butt of jokes for many Marvel fans and moviegoers. That manifested in multiple memes and online jokes surrounding the film, which peaked when the movie first tried to bite into the box office. Many of these memes and jokes can get traced back to a now-infamous tweet, wherein the poster made intentionally untrue statements about the movie’s content. These included the film supposedly containing the line “It’s Morbin’ time,” an obvious reference to the Power Rangers franchise.
Other recurring jokes include the movie supposedly making “morbillion” dollars or other erroneous statements about its “high quality.” Photoshopping the poster onto video game boxes for fictional tie-in games has also become common, showing how far some people are willing to go to laugh at the latest Marvel legend. The gags at the movie’s expense keep coming, and they’ve become perhaps the only thing that people remember about it aside from Matt Smith’s cringe-worthy dance. That made Sony, likely desperate to make more money from the movie, re-release it in theaters. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t help Morbius “morb” into a hit and only further added egg to the vampire movie’s pasty face.
Sony Failed to Capitalize on the Morbius Joke
Despite the vast number of memes based around Morbius in the past two months, the re-release hasn’t been the resurrection that Sony was hoping for with its Living Vampire. The second release has seemingly bombed big time at the box office, proving that it probably never really was “Morbin’ time.” That is for a few reasons, not least of which is the movie’s actual quality. At the same time, several bad movies have become cult classic hits due to their quality, such as The Room. Something similar was probably what Sony wanted, but it couldn’t even read the said room when it came to the nature of memes.
Memes are easy to make and far easier to consume, not to mention free. It takes a lot less effort to look at a meme than to pay and watch a movie, especially a bad one. At the same time, Sony was lazy when it came to actually promoting the re-release. By even doing it in the first place, it was clear that Sony was acknowledging its lousy nature and leaning into the joke. So, why not play that up more through social media and other cheap/free advertising, perhaps even using the “It’s Morbin’ time” meme on Twitter and Facebook to entice viewers to rewatch the movie?
It would have been a strange and self-deprecating version of the #releasethesnydercut movement for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but it likely would have resulted in better box office returns. Sony could have made a decent bit of change on the film, or, at the very least, better than what it’s made so far. However, as it stands, “morbillions” of dollars are not in Morbius‘ future, with memes continuing to highlight its failures instead of reversing them.