It finally appears to be Morbin' Time for audiences, as Morbius has become incredibly popular with Netflix subscribers. Sony's third entry in their Spider-Man Universe was meant to be the start of Jared Leto's tenure as Dr. Michael Morbius, the living vampire and Spider-man villain. Morbius was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, which resulted in the movie becoming a box office disappointment. The Venom movies managed still to make a ton of money despite mixed reviews, but Morbius only earned $163 million worldwide during its theatrical run.
Morbius' box office flop came as the film became a popular meme online. Audiences invented a ridiculous catchphrase for Morbius, "It's Morbin' time," that spurned people to jokingly campaign for a sequel online. The jokes tricked Sony into re-releasing Morbius in theaters, only for the movie to bomb once again. It was seemingly the final nail in the coffin for any chance that the movie would gain relevance beyond Jared Leto's Morbius future and return to the Marvel universe. That looked quite unlikely, though, with the actor even trying to get in on the Morbin' Time jokes, which only seemed to confirm the film's fate as being best remembered for its memes (or Matt Smith's dancing).
In a surprising twist of fates, Morbius is now incredibly popular on Netflix. Sony's superhero movie debuted on the streaming service on September 7, 2022. According to Netflix's Top 10 charts, Morbius earned over 12 million views in its first five days, which was enough for it to be the fifth most popular movie of the week. However, it has continued to climb the charts since then. Morbius has currently topped out at the second spot in Netflix's Top 10 movies in the U.S. It continues a strong performance for Sony's Marvel movies on Netflix, as Venom became the most popular movie on the service in October 2021 right as Venom: Let There Be Carnage hit theaters and earned over 40 million views in a month. Spider-Man: Homecoming also saw a spike in popularity in December 2021 around Spider-Man: No Way Home's release, resulting in three weeks in the Top 10.
Did The Morbin' Time Meme Cause Morbius' Netflix Popularity?
Morbius' popularity on Netflix is a surprising turn for the movie, even after the popular Morbin' Time memes. The box office performance indicated that audiences were not too interested in seeing Jared Leto's vampire character. Netflix is a completely different beast, though. Morbius' 15 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes may have scared off many from going to pay to see it in theaters. However, it being easily accessible on Netflix has clearly opened up the movie to a new audience. Whether the millions watching Morbius on Netflix are doing so ironically and to get in on the meme jokes or they are genuinely interested in it, the end result is the same.
What makes the popularity really noteworthy is that the demand to watch it came right as Morbius' Netflix release happened and without any other added motivations. Venom and Spider-Man: Homecoming's popularity were unsurprising because the films were box office hits and became available right before sequels were released, giving audiences an easy way to rewatch them. Morbius 2 is not on the horizon at the moment and neither is any Sony Marvel movie. So, the Morbin' Time memes might really be partially responsible for Morbius' unexpected Netflix popularity.