Venom devours October preview record with $10 million Thursday night

October 5th 2018, 11:01am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Poor reviews be damned, because this weekend comic book fans and Tom Hardy diehards are going to show out for the movie VENOM. The first movie starring the fan-favorite comic book character was projected to have an opening weekend in the $55-65 million range about a month ago, giving it the biggest October opening on record. According to Deadline, the movie is on track to meet those expectations, as it’s already broken the Thursday night preview record with a whopping $10 million.

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The latest superhero outing from Sony surpassed the record held by PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3’s $8 million preview night total back in 2010, and comes ahead of other comic books movies such as DOCTOR STRANGE ($9.4 million), LOGAN ($9.5 million) THOR: THE DARK WORLD ($7 million) and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ($8.7 million). Those comic book movies all went on to have openings ranging from $60-85 million, so even if VENOM is a bit front-loaded still has an excellent shot at reaching similar, marvelous heights.

The only thing stopping the movie from performing well over the weekend is the poor reviews. Folks on social media have spent the better part of the summer taking shots at the movie for one reason or another, whether it be mocking the Eminem song attached to it ("Venommmumumenmonom!") or simply saying it looked like trash. The reviews have not been much kinder, and the movie currently stands at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, on par with the likes of BATMAN V. SUPERMAN and SUICIDE SQUAD. This could result in poor word of mouth, meaning the movie will open big but limp through the following weeks, much like WATCHMEN in 2008 ($55 million opening; $107 million domestic total).

Also doing well in preview shows was the critically-acclaimed drama A STAR IS BORN, which when combined with the early access shows on Tuesday and Wednesday amassed $4.5 million by the end of Thursday night. The movie holds a 96% rating on RT and is an Oscar contender you’ll be hearing about all the way into 2019. Though it’s likely to come in under VENOM this weekend, the pairing of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga should bring in the packed houses looking for non-comic book content.

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I saw both movies this week, and the audiences seemed to enjoy both – obviously for different reasons. You could hear people laughing and weeping throughout STAR, while the mostly-packed IMAX 3D showing of VENOM (no, not worth the 3D price) was very responsive once Venom and Eddie Brock (Hardy) became one. I have no doubt that STAR will do well this weekend and going forward as word spreads, and though VENOM will likely be very front-loaded it will do well enough on opening weekend to make us all accept VENOM 2 will be put on the fast track. I’m just trying to get you all ready for the inevitable.