Venom may not be among the more acclaimed comic book movies of these last couple of years, but by some measures, it’s actually enjoying a better success rate at the box office than at least one superhero flick that critics really liked. Forbes put the recent figures for Eddie Brock’s first standalone film into perspective when they observed how the flick’s revenue since its first weekend has been proportionally better than Logan’s run up to this point.
To put this into numbers, Venom raked in a record-breaking $80 million domestically on its opening weekend, before pushing that figure up to $107.1 million by the end of its first week, yielding a 1.33x multiplier. Logan, meanwhile, earned a superior $88 million domestically on its opening weekend, before finishing its first week at $114 million, making for a multiplier of only 1.29x. So, while Wolverine’s movie may have the higher total at this point, Venom is actually sustaining its audience levels better and, right now, is on pace to outperform James Mangold’s beloved pic.
For further comparisons, a recent ranking of the opening weekends of superhero origin movies placed the Ruben Fleischer-helmed film ahead of the better-reviewed Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Then again, it still ranked behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so it’s probably best not to take these figures as a sign of Venom’s artistic merit.
Looking overseas, the feature has yet to make its all-important China debut, but at this rate, it seems likely that this symbiote saga will be getting the second installment that it so clearly wants. In the meantime, if you haven’t seen Venom yet, then feel free to give it a watch and decide for yourself whether you want Tom Hardy to go face to face with a PG-13 Carnage.