'Morbius' was a box-office dud but now it's topping Netflix's charts, as the streamer's deal with Sony continues to pay off
- Sony's "Morbius" is the No. 1 movie on Netflix right now, after landing on the service on Wednesday.
- Starting this year, Sony movies stream on Netflix after their theatrical and home-entertainment runs.
"Morbius," Sony's Marvel movie starring Jared Leto as a vampiric antihero, disappointed in theaters after it debuted in April with $163 million globally, including just $74 million in the US.
Five months later, it's the No. 1 movie on Netflix in the US.
The movie landed on the streamer Wednesday, and has been the top movie on the service since (Netflix measures its daily top 10 lists by hours viewed the previous 24 hours).
"Morbius" is part of a five-year deal with Netflix reached in 2021 that kicked in this year, in which Netflix landed domestic streaming rights to Sony's movies after their theatrical and home-entertainment runs.
Sony, which doesn't have its own streaming platform, owns the film rights to Spider-Man and hundreds of related Marvel characters — meaning Netflix will be the first streaming home for any future Marvel movies Sony releases to theaters. The streamer also is licensing select older movies from Sony's library, such as its past Spider-Man movies.
As part of the agreement, Netflix has a first-look option for movies Sony is making directly for streaming or planning to license for streaming.
The deal is already proving to be one of Netflix's best bets.
"Uncharted," Sony's video-game adaptation that hit theaters in March and later landed on Netflix, topped Nielsen's latest movie streaming chart, which measured the week of August 8-14.
During that week, "Uncharted" was the most-watched movie across the platforms Nielsen measures — including Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hulu — with 1.18 billion minutes viewed in the US.
It was the No. 2 most-watched title overall, second to Netflix's series "The Sandman."
Sony movies have dominated consumer engagement on Netflix. According to Julia Alexander, director of strategy at the data firm Parrot Analytics, half of the top 10 most in-demand movies on Netflix in the US over the last 90 days were licensed from or produced by Sony (Parrot Analytics' audience demand reflects the interest in a given movie or series based on viewership, online engagement, and more).
Those movies included:
- "Spider-Man 2" (No 1)
- "Uncharted" (No. 2)
- "Spider-Man 3" (No. 5)
- "The Amazing Spider-Man" (No. 8)
- "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" (No. 9)
The chart below illustrates the top 10 most in-demand movies on Netflix over the last 90 days:
