Venom wasn't a hit with critics, but don't tell the box office that. The movie set a record for October box office opening, but it hasn't stopped there. The film just crossed the $300 million mark overseas and is now staring down the barrel of a $500 million global take.
And make no mistake, it will hit that $500 million number. In fact, it's expected to go well past $600 million considering the film has yet to open in China, one of the largest box offices in the world. Venom doesn't even need to be a massive hit to put up solid numbers in China. Add to that the film hasn't opened in Japan yet either, and Venom still has a lot of fight left in it.
Venom won the box office each of its first two weekends in North America, and while it dropped to third last weekend, it still put up a solid $18 million.
According to Deadline, the great international numbers so far come thanks to both Korea and Russia, where the film has done just short of $30 million. In the UK and Mexico Venom has broken $20 million and in Brazil, the movie has done over $15 million.
Venom should be remembered the next time somebody worries about how a Rotten Tomatoes score is going to impact the box office. For the record, the film has a 30% positive rating, which is...bad. However, not only has Venom been successful in spite of that, it's thrived. A strong opening weekend is one thing. The character has a lot of fans who have been waiting for years to see him on the big screen, but the film has continued to make money every weekend. It didn't collapse after opening like many big tentpoles. The fact that it's been equally successful overseas is just as impressive.
For what it's worth, it seems like at least part of Venom's success comes from exactly the same thing that critics panned. The movie is somewhat...silly? However, it doesn't appear that even the movie's fans are denying that. Instead, they've chosen to embrace it.
As popular a character as Venom is among comic book fans, how the film was going to fair was still an open in question leading up to release. Venom has always been a part of the Spider-Man canon and without the ability to use the web-head to introduce the alien it wasn't a sure thing that people would accept the character. It is now.
While nothing official has been said about a Venom 2, you can bet with numbers like these that conversation is happening. It's also good news for the rest of the Spider-Man adjacent movies that Sony plans to make, including Morbius with Jared Leto which has been confirmed as the next one out of the gate.
