It's wild that Sony's Spider-Man franchise failed to 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 as Kraven the Hunter became its most catastrophic bomb yet. While there are plenty of reasons suggested for why Sony's Spider-Man Universe fizzled out with 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 trajectory after Venom raked in $856 million at the global box office, but even Venom: 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 on Rotten 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, though Venom: Let There Be Carnage is more unifying in its positive reviews.
Sony's Spider-Man Universe Movies |
Worldwide Box Office (via The Numbers) |
|---|---|
Venom (2018) |
$856,081,053 |
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) |
$501,546,922 |
Venom: The Last Dance (2024) |
$475,051,219 |
Total Box Office: $1,832,679,194 |
|
Both Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage earned $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, including Thor: Love and Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, and Captain 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. Morbius is 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 by Madame Web, which earned $100 million. Given the consistently poor reception to Sony's Spider-Man Universe, the writing was on the wall for the record-setting Kraven 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.
Sony's Spider-Man Universe Movies |
Worldwide Box Office (via The Numbers) |
|---|---|
Morbius (2022) |
$162,759,437 |
Madame Web (2024) |
$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, beating Morbius by over $30 million. The total earnings exceed only The Marvels and The Incredible Hulk, while the 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 off in 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 is Tom 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 helping Venom's franchise to blow them out of the water.
- Created by
- David Michelinie, Todd McFarlane
- First Film
- Venom
- Latest Film
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage
- Cast
- Stephen Graham
The Venom franchise 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 film Venom, 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.
MCU Movies
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes & The Numbers
