For a movie that was absolutely trashed by critics before release, Venom‘s doing unbelievably well for itself at the box office.
The first outing for Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters (yes, that’s really what the franchise is called) beat out critical darling A Star Is Born with a record-breaking opening last month and continues to impress the industry. After a stellar debut in China this past week, it’s now pushed its total global haul to $673.5 million. That breaks down to $206.2 million on home turf and $467.3 million internationally.
Of course, this is far better than anyone could’ve hoped for and means that Venom has officially climbed over some real heavy hitters, like Logan ($619 million), Ant-Man and the Wasp ($622 million) and, perhaps most impressive, Justice League ($657.9 million). Not to mention that when it comes to DC’s team-up pic in particular, Eddie Brock’s first standalone outing cost far less to make, arriving with a budget of about $100 million compared to Justice League‘s price tag of roughly $300 million.
It goes without saying that Sony’s undoubtedly very pleased with Venom‘s performance so far and at this point, a sequel is surely on the verge of being announced. I mean, the movie even teased who the villain in the follow-up will be with its post-credits sequence. Spoilers: it’s Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady, who goes on to become Carnage.
Whatever lies ahead for Mr. Brock, though, the studio can at least rest easy knowing that things are off to a great start for their burgeoning cinematic universe. And with many more Spidey spinoffs planned beyond Venom, you can be sure that this won’t be the last we see of Eddie.