In news that’s not entirely unexpected after critical panning, we’ve seen a softer Box Office than anticipated for both Morbius and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer and our industry insider from Blake & Wang P.A, takes a look at the figures.
Morbius Nosedives
Sadly, Morbius currently holds a record no superhero movie needs- one of the sharpest drop-offs from opening weekend we’ve seen in a long while. Dipping 74% lower than last weekend, it pulled in a meager $10.2M after its strong debut, bringing its ten-day total to $57.7M. This ‘outperforms’ even notorious Box Office dropouts like Batman v Superman, Hulk, and Fantastic Four. Only long-forgotten 1997 superhero offering, Steel, which dropped from an $800K-ish debut to a tiny $191K in weekend two, managed worse.
So no, sadly. The somewhat buoyant idea that this movie would perform better with audiences than critics, propped up by a decent opening weekend, hasn’t panned out either. It’s hard not to see this one as a bust. The notion that every Spider Man villain needs their own spin-off movie, or that it can perform on Venom levels, is hopefully put to bed for good.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Starts Soft Overseas
The newest in the Fantastic Beasts franchise has had a soft international start, too, though still managing $58M. Some of it can be written off to COVID closures in China, though a lot is also market boredom with once-loved franchises there, too. However, while Japanese markets performed equivalent to the previous franchise installment, takings were halved from the UK, too. Even the ever-nostalgic Millennials seem to finally be tiring of the same old wizardly battles.
Not that it was bad news for the Box Office overall. Despite these two flunking out of the class, we saw commendable enough performances from The Batman and The Lost City, which was expected to have sunk into obscurity by now. Add a decent showing from Sonic 2, a solid performance from Uncharted, and the still-present loom of Spider-Man: No Way Home to Sing 2’s continued strong presence and an oddly strong showing from R-rated zombie romp, X, and the news wasn’t bad for the Box Office overall. It might just be time to put a cap on the superhero farming until a worthy target presents itself.
Film and Television 