The world may have enough superheroes, but audiences can't seem to get enough of comic book movies.
Venom, Sony's new film about the popular Spider-Man villain that cuts Spider-Man out of the picture entirely, blew away expectations this weekend by grossing $80 million in the U.S, per Box Office Mojo. This is quite easily the biggest October opening weekend ever; the previous record-holder was 2013's Gravity, which opened to $55 million.
With this showing, Venom far surpassed the Friday estimates that had put it closer to $60 million, Deadline reported at the time. Worldwide, the movie took in a total of $205 million. Considering the budget is estimated to only be about $100 million, per Forbes, this is a big win for Sony and indicates that its planned universe of films based on Spider-Man characters is good to go. Impressively, the movie also bested Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and the Wasp, which opened to $75 million over the summer.
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Venom saw this success despite toxic reviews, with critics panning the film and with its Rotten Tomatoes score sitting at 31 percent. But average viewers seemed to disagree, as CinemaScore found that a sampling of moviegoers from around the country gave Venom a rating of B+. It remains to be seen how the film will continue to perform in the coming weeks, but this great debut is already enough for Sony to feel satisfied.
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