We'll see, then. Considering Venom 1 and 2's box office returns despite the word of mouth and reviews, then the upcoming films are probably in a good place.
Unsubstantiated argument, but we'll see, indeed.
The general audience doesn't care as much about what character and how popular they are compared to a bunch of nerds and geeks such as us going back and forth on Twitter or message boards. They'll just see a comic book movie because it's a comic book movie.
The general audience has no idea who these characters are, while Venom is maybe the most popular Spider-Man villain and was already featured in a live action movie. Also Tom Hardy is a much bigger name than Aaron Taylor Johnson and Dakota Johnson (I just realised they are both Johnsons) and has even bigger star power than Leto. You keep assuming that all of their other films are going to have similar revenue but there's no real comparison there. Morbius is going to be the one to actual show us a glimpse of how the rest of these characters, unknown to the general audience, might do.
What you se as bottom of the barrel low, someone else sees as just pure popcorn entertainment.
I thought it was obvious I was commenting on why myself and a big part of the audience don't want this universe to continue, which is a reason this whole debate started, and it was suppose to clarify that it had nothing to do with it "being different" than the MCU as you assumed for some reason.
There's a reason Venom 2 doubled down on what made the first one good- ie, the Eddie and Venom stuff- because that's what people enjoyed, regardless of the film's overall quality. Hell, if that sentiment truly was shared across a big chunk of the audience, as you said, Venom 2 wouldn't have been profitable at all, pandemic or otherwise. I guarantee you the audience that still asks whether Superman is an Avenger doesn't care as much about the quality of Sony's Spider-Man universe as you or I.
While the film made as much as the first movie, as you say, and during pandemic times nonetheless, which is quite impressive on its own, you are only talking about the US. Even though America is definitely the biggest market, it's certainly not the only market. In the rest of the world it overall made 350 million less, which is less than half of what the first film did. And sure, covid and competition didn't help things out, but the numbers still show a serious decline.
That's not my point, though. My point is it did as good as it did, not because reviews and a certain amount of bad word-to-mouth don't matter, as you seem to claim, but because the character is so popular that it did good despite them. Meaning it would probably do much better if the films weren't a mixed bag (at best) for critics and the general audience. Something that might actual affect the rest of that universe if there's nothing to counterbalance it with.
