So, a weird thing happened this weekend.
A really mediocre movie returned to theaters and did exactly as well as you would expect it to against a line-up that includes "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
Oh, poor Sony Pictures. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is as much a pop culture juggernaut as its ever been, Sony's Marvel-adjacent offerings still struggle with getting their time in the spotlight.
For the uninitiated, the film rights for most of Marvel's most iconic properties have been spread across multiple studios for quite some time. Franchises like the X-Men and Fantastic Four were segregated from the MCU until very recently, due to those rights being held by 20th Century Fox. It's only now, with Fox and Marvel Studios both now being owned by Disney, that characters from those franchises can be used in the MCU.
Likewise, the movie rights to Spider-Man and the web of characters in his orbit are owned by Sony.
Unfortunately for Sony, while the current incarnation of Spider-Man has seen spectacular success, no doubt due to the joint-custody agreement they've made with Marvel Studios, Sony has been less that successful in tapping the potential of Spider-Man's extended cast of characters.
Case in point, Morbius, a scientifically created "living vampire" that has straddled the line between villain and anti-hero since his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #101.
Sony's film adaptation of Morbius was… fine.
It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. It does nothing particularly awful nor does it do anything particularly well. It just kind of exists.
And some how, that precise level of mediocrity really struck a chord with the online collective.
It began with memes presenting the movie as an unprecedented success, sarcastically treating the movie as though it was the box office success it very clearly wasn't.
Somehow, those memes evolved and the internet latched on to Morbius's fake, but now possibly real, catchphrase, "It's Morbin Time," a play on the classic line from "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."
It was all fun and games until Sony took notice.
Making some optimistic assumptions about how much memes can translate into ticket sales, Sony made the rare decision to put the movie back into theaters for a weekend for a limited run.
The result: a whole $300,000 added to its domestic total.
Now, that's $300,000 more than it had before, but I'm guessing that's not the result Sony was hoping for.
As it turns out, while millions of people are happy to sarcastically acclaim the movie for free, that doesn't translate into a willingness to spend actual money on a ticket.
This isn't the first time that Hollywood has fallen for this trap. Anybody remember "Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L Jackson? The online hype surrounding that movie was also disproportionately huge compared to its box office numbers.
As shown time and again, you can't carry a movie with an audience that only likes it ironically. The internet can definitely generate hype and boost sales for a movie, but the interest has to be legitimate.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and will still probably see the inevitable Morbius sequel.
