When Will ‘Morbius’ Be Available to Stream? Will Marvel Movie Be on Disney+, Netflix?
Perhaps no recent movie has had as bizarre of a journey to streaming as the Sony and Marvel super-antihero vampire-doctor film “Morbius.” Originally slated to be released in July 2020, due to COVID it was delayed until March 19, 2021, then Oct. 8, then Jan. 21, 2022, and then Jan. 28, before finally hitting the big screen on the ironically appropriate April 1 of this year.
The film — which tells the story of chronically ill genius doctor Michael Morbius who experiments on Costa Rican vampire bats in order to use their genes to cure his own blood illness, thus resulting in him receiving superhuman abilities — received a 16% rotten score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes but, despite the frosty reviews from critics, audiences seemed to enjoy the bizarre horror-infused comic book movie, giving it a 71% rating on the site.
As a result, the campy flick starring Oscar-winner Jared Leto became a favorite for hate-watching across the internet spawning the meme-ification of “Morbius,” perhaps making it appear far more popular than it actually was. Despite grossing just $73.5 million domestically (more than half of which came on opening weekend), this extremely online obsession with the film prompted Sony to re-release the movie during the first weekend in June. The ill-advised experiment grossed the studio an embarrassing $310,665 on 1,037 screens across the country; meaning that it made just $299 — or the equivalent of roughly 20 tickets sold — for each screening.
Morbius
Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder, and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) attempts a desperate gamble. What at first appears to be a radical success soon reveals itself to be a remedy potentially worse than the disease.
The introduction of Marvel’s vampire character opens the door for a potential crossover with the upcoming “Blade” series starring Mahershala Ali.
The film also stars Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson.
To date, the movie has brought in $163.9 million at the international box office and $73.85 domestically, both of which are good for 13th thus far in 2022. So, while it might not be nearly as big as the audience for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” or “The Batman,” there is apparently an audience out there for “Morbius,” and since so much of the film’s attention has happened online, there are probably 10s of people anxiously waiting to find out when the movie will be available to stream. So let’s look into that very question.
While Morbius is a Marvel character, he is traditionally part of Spider-man’s rogues’ gallery, meaning that the character’s film rights are owned by Sony. So, “Morbius” will not be coming to Disney+ anytime soon, but instead will eventually stream on Netflix thanks to the studio’s 2021 deal with the streaming giant.
Though the deal came to fruition a year ago, because of pandemic delays, there isn’t a lot of precedents to base streaming release date estimates on, but we did get one significant data point last week as it was announced that Sony’s “Uncharted” — starring erstwhile Spider-Man Tom Holland — would hit Netflix on Friday, July 15.
Since the film was released in theatres on Feb. 18 that means that it will have been 147 days since its theatrical release when the video-game adaptation lands on the streamer. If that window holds for “Morbius,” that would put its Netflix premiere somewhere in the neighborhood of Friday, Aug. 26.
If Sony attempts to stagger its streaming releases as to not conflict with any big screen debuts, late August would make sense as the Brad Pitt-led action capper “Bullet Train” arrives in theaters on Aug. 5 and the next Sony film — “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” — isn’t likely to have much audience overlap with “Morbius” and doesn’t hit the big screen until Oct. 14.
In fairness, given the disappointment from the re-release, the studio could move to ride whatever goodwill the film still has and release the film to Netflix sooner than originally planned. While also not a critical darling (40% on Rotten Tomatoes), “Uncharted” has grossed $401.5 million dollars worldwide since its February release and its domestic total is within shouting distance of “Morbius’” worldwide haul. So, the comparison is not exactly apples to apples and that fact could lead to a much different rollout strategy from Sony.
So, while nothing has really made sense with “Morbius” since the film was initially announced — and things could obviously change with the movie at any time — if Sony sticks to what it has done before, this blood-sucking film should be on Netflix by the end of August.
Netflix
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