Social media can be a strange place sometimes. Well, most of the time. And Jared Leto's recent box office bomb Morbius, based on the second teir Spider-Man anti-hero, has certainly proven that - while simultaneously proving that corporations just don't get it..

The film in question has not garnered favor with fans or citics, opening to empty theaters and only earning a little over $163 million as of this week worldwide. That's on a $75-$83 million dollar budget, which makes it one of the lowest grossing Marvel films ever.

Soon, the internet sank its fangs in with #MorbiusSweep. Memes began to pour out of every corner of Twitter, ironically praising the film.

And then #MorbinTime took over, so much so that even Jared Leto got in on the joke.

In what one might call an attempt to exemplify the phrase "there's no such thing as bad publicity," Sony decided to rerelease Morbius in theaters last week; The film bombed yet again, coming in with a domesic total of a paltry $73.4 million, which average out to $82 per theater according to The Numbers.

Maybe this shows a serious problem with what studios perceive as fandom and how to cater to it. Sure this could have worked, even if it was just the trolls who came out in full force and sat there making fun of it in a Rocky Horror Picture Show audience participation type experience - but it's unclear if that's even what they were going for. Sony may have been hoping to capitalize on the film's meme status, but it's also entirely possible that they just entirely missed the levels of irony that went into the hashtag.

Even with its failure, this might not be the last time we see Morbius - what with the hints that he will appear in a future Spider-Man film. Maybe as a secondary character, Morbius will be more palatable.

Tags
Sony, Marvel, Jared leto