It’s wild thatVenom’s movie franchise was so successful that it outperformed the rest ofSony’s Spider-Man Universeby more than five times the total global box office. Thefirst installment of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe,Venom, earned promising results upon its release in 2018 after debuting one of the most popular characters associated with Spider-Man. Unfortunately, this initial success would fail to bear much fruit as subsequent installments ofSony’s Spider-Man franchise failedto inspire half as much enthusiasm from fans as it introduced even more minor characters like Morbius and Madame Web.
This would lead to the apparent death of the franchise just six years later at the tail-end of 2024 asKraven the Hunterbecame its most catastrophic bomb yet. While there are plenty of reasons suggested forwhy Sony’s Spider-Man Universe fizzled outwith three bombs under its belt, it’s notable that Venom largely averted the same critical and financial failures suffered by other movies in the shared cinematic universe. I don’t find this too surprising given how popular Venom is compared to his franchise cohorts - but the extent of his comparative success is staggering.
Sony’s Venom Movie Box Office Has Some Considerable Results
The Franchise Earned $1.8 Billion Total
Sony’s Venom trilogy suffered a downward trajectoryafterVenomraked in $856 million at the global box office, but evenVenom: The Last Dance’s $475 million is nothing to sniff at. The solid start to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is even more surprising considering the movie wasn’t exactly acclaimed upon release, scoring just 30% from critics onRotten Tomatoes, though fans were far more enthused by the movie, bestowing it with an 80% audience rating. The two sequels would replicate this gulf between audiences and critics, thoughVenom: Let There Be Carnageis more unifying in its positive reviews.
$856,081,053
$501,546,922
$475,051,219
Total Box Office: $1,832,679,194
BothVenomandVenom: Let There Be Carnageearned $213 million domestically, leaving it to international audiences to edge the first movie closer to $1 billion. Altogether,Venom’s trilogy earned Sony’s Spider-Man Universe $1.8 billion at the global box office. This puts it on a par with the MCU’s Ant-Man franchise, which earned $1.6 billion total across three movies.Venom’s $856 million box office, meanwhile, places it ahead of half of the MCU’s movies, includingThor: Love and Thunder,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, andCaptain America: The Winter Soldier.
The Other Movies In The Sony Spider-Man Universe Have Far Lower Box Office Results Even All Combined
Sony’s Other Three Movies Earned An Abysmal Collective Box Office
The heady heights of Venom’s billion-dollar trilogy would not be reached again by Sony - not even nearly.Morbiusis the highest-grossing movie in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe outside of Venom’s trilogy with $162 million. This is also the second-lowest-rated of the franchise, beaten only byMadame Web, which earned $100 million. Given the consistently poor reception to Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, the writing was on the wall forthe record-settingKraven the Hunter, which earned just $59 million globally and heralded the doom of the franchise as a whole. Altogether,these movies earned just $322 million total.
$162,759,437
$100,298,817
Kraven the Hunter (2024)
$59,184,643
Total Box Office: $322,242,897
Not only does this fall excessively short of Venom’s $1.8 billion, but it doesn’t even measure up to the lowest-earning movie in the trilogy,Venom: The Last Dance. In fact,Venom’s franchise earned 5.5 times more than Sony’s other movies. For added context, the MCU’s lowest-earning movie,The Marvels, earned $199 million globally, beatingMorbiusby over $30 million. The total earnings exceed onlyThe MarvelsandThe Incredible Hulk, whilethe MCU’s third-lowest-grossing movie,Captain America: The First Avenger, earned $370 million. While I find this to be particularly mind-blowing, I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised.
Why The Venom Movies Did So Much Better Than The Other Sony Spider-Man Universe Movies
Venom Is Way More Popular Than Sony’s Other Characters
Put simply,Venom outperformed his franchise colleagues by virtue of his recognizability. Venom remains one of the most iconic characters from Marvel Comics and one of Spider-Man’s most popular adversaries. With that in mind, I can’t help but wonder if Sony’s fortunes may have changed for the better had the studio opted to lean into any semblance of interconnected plots and featured Venom in any one of its other movies. Instead,Venom was seemingly killed offin his final appearance, which makes me wonder whether Sony ever intended for him to reappear in a future installment.
8 Things Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Actually Got Right
The Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is largely considered a failure, there were some redeeming features and moments in which the franchise excelled.
Bolstering Venom’s popularity isTom Hardy’s incredible star power and his celebrated portrayal of Eddie Brock and Venom. I think it’s pretty clear that he and other filmmakers involved in the making of the Venom trilogy were fans of the IP, which is often a winning formula for such movies. Ultimately, however, I can’t skirt over the fact that the other movies in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe had a huge task in justifying their existence without Spider-Man, a task many believe they failed, ultimately helpingVenom’s franchise to blow them out of the water.
Venom
TheVenomfranchise is a series of superhero films based on the Marvel Comics character Venom, produced by Sony Pictures as part of their Spider-Man Universe. The franchise began with the 2018 filmVenom, which tells the story of Eddie Brock, a journalist who becomes the host for an alien symbiote, giving him superhuman abilities. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success, leading to a sequel and further expansion of the franchise.
