Venom: The Last Dance Has Already Out-Performed Two of Sony's Biggest Marvel Flops

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Venom: The Last Dance

Marvel managed to transform B-list characters into global icons over the course of a decade; famously, the studio didn’t hold the rights to several of its most popular superheroes when it started producing its own films. The X-Men and The Fantastic Four, until recently, were with Fox, while Spider-Man remains with Sony. In an attempt to mimic the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the highest-grossing film franchise of all time — Sony launched its own shared universe of superhero films. Whether by design or not, each of the franchise's five live-action movies is viewed more as a goofy distraction than an actual superhero tent-pole, but thanks to the solid opening that Venom: The Last Dance delivered recently, the series has managed to pass a major global box office milestone.

The third and purportedly final installment in the Venom trilogy debuted this past weekend across the world, grossing around $175 million. The film has since generated around $184 million worldwide, despite characteristically conflicted reviews. Thanks to its performance, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe has now hit the $1.8 billion milestone globally. The three Venom films are the largest contributors to this total, having delivered a combined global haul of over $1.5 billion. They’re the only films in the SSU that can remotely be counted as successful, because the other two — Morbius and Madame Web — are often listed among the worst superhero films ever made.

Starring Jared Leto and directed by Daniel Espinosa, Morbius was released to terrible reviews and widespread mockery a couple of years ago. The movie concluded its run with a little over $160 million worldwide, against a reported budget of under $80 million. Earlier this year, the equally derided Madame Web debuted to even worse box office response. Starring Dakota Johnson and directed by S.J. Clarkson, Madame Web grossed exactly $100 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $80 million. The movie holds a “rotten” 11% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, as compared to Morbius’ 15% score.

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Were it not for the Venom movies, the SSU would be categorized alongside the disastrous Dark Universe — a planned shared franchise featuring classic monsters that Universal came up with a few years ago. Directed by Ruben Fleischer, the first Venom was an unexpectedly robust blockbuster, grossing over $850 million worldwide, nearly $300 million of which came from China. A few years later, Venom: Let There Be Carnage generated over $500 million globally, despite being released at a far scarier time during the pandemic and not securing a China release. None of the Venom films have managed to score a “fresh” RT rating, but they’ve largely been embraced by audiences.

Starring a returning Tom Hardy, Venom: The Last Dance is directed by debutante Kelly Marcel, and was produced on a reported budget of $110 million. You can watch the film in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Eddie Brock, balancing life with the alien symbiote Venom, faces a complex struggle with a powerful new adversary threatening their existence and the world. As a turbulent alliance forms between man and symbiote, the duo embarks on a thrilling journey of survival, challenging their limits and ethical boundaries.

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