Tom Hardy's Venom is projected to open close to $175 worldwide this weekend. Sony has been interested in getting a cinematic universe of their own off the ground for years. They failed to do so with Amazing Spider-Man 2 but then put Spider-Man in the MCU. After the wild success Tom Holland's Peter Parker has received, their interest was reborn and made Venom their top priority. The project snagged Hardy as the symbiote anti-hero with Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer directing. Sony's hoping for a huge hit as they have bigger plans for their Spider-Man-less universe.
Early box office tracking for Venom put the movie on track to break the October record for largest opening weekend. Gravity currently holds the title with just north of $55 million, but Venom has been tracking above $60M almost throughout the entire process. That figure just pertains to its stateside launch, and it looks like international markets are ready to help give Venom a sizable opening.
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Deadline reports that Venom is projected to make between $160M and $175M worldwide in its opening weekend. Only a portion of this will come domestically, as the latest tracking points to a $60M-$65M opening. With a global launch that includes 59 markets (but not China, Japan, or France), this is where Venom is expected to take in between $100M and $110M this weekend.
If Venom is able to hit these projections, this should be a pretty solid start to the film's theatrical run. There hasn't been a new superhero movie to open since Ant-Man and the Wasp in July, so the interest in another big blockbuster from the genre does exist. Of course, whether or not Venom is able to actually achieve these projections will come down to the current level of interest audiences have in the movie, which may have dipped after largely negative reviews. Even though A Star Is Born isn't expected to be much of a challenger overseas, it is possible that Bradley Cooper's directorial debut could strongly contend with Venom based on his film's stellar reviews.
As mentioned earlier, Sony needs Venom to have a big box office haul to justify their plans to continue and grow this Spider-Verse. Next up on the slate is supposed to be Jared Leto's Morbius movie. The studio is also developing a Nightwatch movie, solo films for Black Cat and Silver Sable, a Silk spinoff, and even movies for villains like Kraven the Hunter. Since all of these projects are in the earlier stages, it is safe to say Sony is waiting to see how Venom performs. If a $175M launch is what comes and the movie can have solid legs throughout October, then maybe Venom will be the cinematic universe launch pad Sony is looking for.
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Source: Deadline
