Back in early October, you may recall how the week of Venom’s release didn’t get off to the strongest of starts, with the early reactions to Eddie Brock’s first solo outing suggesting that Sony might have a disaster on its hands. But once this symbiote story actually came out in theaters, its commercial performance exceeded expectations.
A recent report from Business Insider has offered a thorough analysis of what this box office success likely means for Sony and the Venom franchise, not to mention the Spider-Man property, too. And as it stands, all signs point to the movie getting a follow-up. To quote Box Office Analyst’s Doug Stone:
“There is strong interest in a sequel, which will no doubt happen given its success.”
To quickly break down the success that Stone’s referring to, after a record-breaking opening weekend, Ruben Fleischer’s film has gone on to gross a worldwide total of $543.1 million. Against a budget of $100 million dollars, this means, proportionally speaking, that the film’s well on its way to being a more profitable release than any of the Spider-Man movies.
Needless to say, Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters is a go, with various comic book projects like the Jared Leto-led Morbius, the Living Vampire currently in the pipeline. And while we’ve yet to hear any official announcements around Venom 2, the first film gave a clear indication of what to expect from this sequel with its mid-credits sequence, in which Woody Harrelson teased of the carnage to come.
For better or worse, the carnage of Venom 2 will likely be of the PG-13 variety, but seeing how many filmgoers showed up for the first appearance from Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock, it’s clear that there are plenty of fans out there who’ll let neither family-friendly ratings nor bad reviews put them off seeing more from this budding cinematic universe.