For a film that was absolutely blasted by critics before release, Venom‘s doing pretty well for itself at the box office.
The first entry into Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters (yes, that’s what the franchise is called) beat out Bradley Cooper’s critical darling A Star Is Born with a record-breaking opening and it repeated the trick this past weekend when it took in an additional $35.7 million, topping Cooper’s pic once again and bringing its global haul to a whopping $378 million. Not bad for a budget of just $100 million, eh?
Now, Venom seems all set for box office glory, as analysts believe it’ll be able to hit $550 million worldwide with ease at this point and once you factor in China’s numbers, where it’ll open on November 9th, it’ll likely soar past $600 million. That could very well put it above both Logan ($619 million) and Ant-Man and the Wasp ($622 million) and if things keep up like this, it might even pass Justice League ($657.9 million).
Even if it doesn’t though, you’d have to imagine that Sony’s no doubt very pleased with Venom‘s performance so far and it’d be foolish to think they won’t move forward with the planned sequel. I mean, the film even teased who the villain in the follow-up will be with its mid-credits sequence. Spoilers: it’s Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady, who goes on to become Carnage.
Of course, the studio hasn’t made any official announcement just yet on Eddie Brock’s future and what lies ahead, but surely that’s coming soon. In the meantime, if you haven’t seen Venom – and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for? – then feel free to give it a watch and decide for yourself whether you’d like to see Tom Hardy to go face to face with a PG-13 Carnage.