NOTE: Box office figures are as of October 22, 2018
After only a few weeks in theaters, it's safe to say Venom is a box office success. Sony, admittedly, hasn't had the best luck adapting Marvel Comics for the big screen over the past decade. Sam Raimi's watershed Spider-Man trilogy flamed out after a mediocre third installment and the Amazing Spider-Man reboot couldn't make it past two entries. As a result, Sony agreed to a groundbreaking deal with Marvel Studios that allowed Peter Parker to become part of the MCU, but they still maintained the rights to some 900 characters that could headline their own features.
Looking to get back in the superhero movie game, Sony moved forward with a standalone Venom film starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. Some viewers were confused or concerned about how the character could work without Spider-Man, but the studio managed to pull it off. Though Venom had a rough go at it from a critical perspective, it's in fine shape commercially.
Venom Broke October Box Office Records
Sony had a lot riding on Venom; as alluded to above, the studio was interested in launching a new line of comic book movies, developing films for characters like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. Of course, the first one out of the gates needed to be a hit, and Venom certainly was that. The film rewrote the history books, grossing $80.2 million in its first three days domestically. That set a new all-time high for an October opening weekend, sailing past the $55.7 million posted by Gravity in 2013. Even with critically-acclaimed Best Picture frontrunner A Star is Born coming out on the same day, Venom proved to be the movie of choice for most viewers. Sony's decision to pursue a PG-13 rating proved to be beneficial.
Related: All The Spider-Villain Movies Coming After Venom
October was also an ideal window for Venom's release. Before Eddie and his symbiote friend arrived on the scene, there had been a shortage of high-profile blockbusters on the market. While there were some box office smashes between the premieres of Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Venom, none of them were four-quadrant genre pictures. Especially after Shane Black's The Predator failed to leave much of an impression, it was easy to see a scenario where Venom capitalized on growing demand for a tentpole. It also faced minimal competition in the fall, with most of the other movies appealing to an entirely different target demographic. If Venom was a summer movie, things may not have gone so smoothly.
Getting out to that strong start was great, especially since Venom (like most of the box office) was dwarfed by Halloween this past weekend. To date, Venom has grossed a robust $172.3 million in the U.S., already placing in the top 10 on the 2018 charts. It will surely move up a couple of spots during the rest of its run, padding its totals before the last wave of major releases this year arrives. There isn't another high-profile franchise installment on the horizon until Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in mid-November, though titles like Bohemian Rhapsody should draw sizable crowds in the interim.
Venom actually out-performed some other modern origin stories, including MCU Phase 1 titles like Thor and Captain America. Still, a case can be made its North American haul isn't overly impressive (at least for now). While $172.3 million isn't anything to be sneezed at, the movie did sport a $100 million production budget, meaning its domestic numbers alone are not enough to get it to profitability. Fortunately, the record-breaking hit is an even bigger smash internationally, where it's done real damage.
Page 2: Venom's Worldwide Box Office
Venom's Worldwide Box Office Made It A Hit
Keeping that $100 million price tag in mind, Venom would need to cross approximately $200 million in order to break even. Its worldwide total far exceeds that figure, coming in at $463.5 million. That's a profit of $263.5 million, which would be enough to produce two more Venoms and have a little extra on the side. Sony was smart to keep costs down, which meant there was a greater chance of the movie ending up in the black. Certainly, $100 million is a ton of money, but compared to the budgets of other comic book movies this year, it's peanuts. Even Ant-Man and the Wasp reportedly cost more.
Things should only get better for Venom in the coming weeks. It's already opened in most countries around the globe, but it still has a Chinese premiere in November on the way. China, the world's second-largest film market, is typically a goldmine for superhero movies. Ant-Man and the Wasp earned $121.2 million there, and Black Panther made $105 million. It wouldn't be fair to expect Venom to rival Avengers: Infinity War's $359.5 million gross, but these numbers give people an idea of the kind of turnout that can happen in China. Right now, there's no reason to expect Venom won't top the $500 million mark before it's pulled from theaters, working its way up the worldwide charts as well. As of this writing, it currently ranks 13th, but still has plenty of time to leapfrog other films.
Related: Will Miles Morales Be Spider-Man In Venom's Universe?
Concerns about the poor reviews may linger, but these results should give Sony the confidence they need to give other Marvel-based films the green light. Morbius should enter production next year, and a Venom sequel is all but officially announced. The studio arguably rolled the dice by ending the movie with a mid-credits stinger setting the stage for a followup, but their gamble paid off. Audiences responded kindly to Venom, and they'll likely be interested in more adventures. Eddie Brock and Venom are currently the internet's most 'shipped couple, illustrating how that dynamic has seized the zeitgeist. Sony will be able to flesh out their universe, especially if the upcoming scripts are in solid shape.
Sony is also seemingly obsessed with the notion of a future crossover with the MCU, suggesting it's inevitable Hardy's Brock interacts with Tom Holland's wall-crawler at some point. However, Venom's box office success indicates Sony doesn't need to force anything with Marvel Studios and can continue to do their own thing. The Spider-Man deal happened because it was necessary for that particular character. After The Amazing Spider-Man 2 crashed and burned, Your Friendly Neighborhood lost a substantial amount of commercial viability. That isn't the case with Venom (yet, anyway), and viewers just showed they don't need Eddie to be part of the MCU's sprawling narrative to care about what happens. Marvel is going to have enough on its plate integrating the incoming Fox properties into the MCU, so it might be for the best if Sony stays in their separate corner. Spidey has plenty of other enemies for solo films.
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Sony's gotten a lot of flack over the years for how they've handled their Marvel films, but they deserve credit for getting Venom to work. It was a bit of a risk, but a relatively reasonable one. Venom is one of the most popular characters Sony has at their disposal, and fans had been clamoring to see an accurate version of him onscreen since the failed Topher Grace experiment of Spider-Man 3. The studio also knew enough to keep costs down, understanding a Venom solo movie independent from the MCU wouldn't necessarily be the biggest draw. It didn't need to rewrite the record books in order to be successful, but since it did, Sony has their tentpole.
