Morbius instantly became a meme when it first premiered, purely because it is a joy to mock online, and two months later, memes might have revived the “living vampire” movie.
The Marvel film’s release was delayed six different times before finally coming out in the shadow of Spider-Man: No Way Home, a massive critical and box office hit. In contrast, Morbius was a flop both commercially and with critics, but jokes about no one seeing it, fake phrases — “it’s Morbin time” — and irony online have become the film’s biggest successes.
Now, as @ERCboxoffice first reported, Morbius screenings have been added to more than 1,000 theaters for the weekend of June 3.
Sony did not respond to a request for comment about the movie’s theatrical return and whether it was directly related to the online meme machine sparked by the film.
From the first trailer for Morbius, which stars Oscar winner Jared Leto as a doctor who infuses himself with bat DNA that grants him magical powers, people were skeptical that a movie about a little-known supervillain would actually be good. And it’s not.
There was also a Discord server created by Sony that quickly went off the rails.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kelseyweekman/morbius-memes-returned-the-film-to-box-office