Venom now has a stand alone film, according to the studio.

[Tymminator]

Right now at this moment, on RT is says 25% on the side column, but when you look it up specifically it says "Tomatometer not available".

 

[Yowza]

Numerous articles spun-out of San Diego comic-con playing up the violent/brutal footage and no one associated with the film would confirm the rating until about a month before the movie's release.

There were numerous articles like this one swirling around right before the rating of the movie finally became official. Just put the following phrase into google: "Venom Rating May Be PG-13 Despite R-Rated Promise" The following article pops up in search with this exact title but when follow the link here: Sorry, Cool Kids: 'Venom' May Be PG-13 After All can see "Venom rating may be pg-13 despite R-rated promise" title is removed. Always this way? Makes me wonder if Sony marketing team had the site change this or not.

When Sony first announced that it was developing a Venom movie, the descriptor “R-rated” immediately followed. Venom was touted as Sony’s first R-rated Marvel film, an intriguing draw for the infamous antihero character. Without the kid-friendly Spider-Man dragging Venom down, the comic book movie was to be Sony’s grasp at being taken seriously. And coming off the heels of the success of Fox’s Logan, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable goal.

But a new report suggests that the highly-promoted Venom rating may not be set in stone. Concerns from high up in Sony may push the Venom rating down to PG-13. And like that, the Venom R-rating may disappear, like a turd in the wind.

Variety reports that, despite early efforts to push Venom as an edgy, violent foil to the kid-friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Sony’s brain trust has begun to express concerns about that illustrious R-rating.

“It’s unlikely that Venom will be the first R-rated Sony Marvel movie,” Variety writes, adding:

Trailers for the film, which recently underwent reshoots in Los Angeles after shooting in Georgia, emphasized the horror movie elements, showing the title character as he’s about to bite a person’s head off. But some members of Sony’s brain trust believe that the film should push the very limits of PG-13 without crossing over into a higher rating.

The scene of Venom biting off a character’s head was shown as recently as this summer’s San Diego Comic-Con. So these new concerns must have been raised pretty recently, which means that Sony and director Ruben Fleischer must have been scrambling to reshoot the film in the past couple months. With only two months left before the film’s release, this suggests the filmmakers are under the wire to accommodate these executives.

So why did the executives have a change of heart so close to the film’s release? Variety suggests that, despite early statements that Venom and the cinematic universe it launches will be without Spider-Man, the studio wants to leave the door open for the web-slinger to appear in future movies. As its most popular property, any title containing Spider-Man will have to carry a family-friendly PG-13 rating, which affects Venom and its possible sequels. Variety also notes that this could open the door for appearances by other members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man currently resides (under loan to Marvel Studios). It’s a lot riding on a simple rating, but it does suggest intriguing future plans for Venom, and possibly an early death knell for Sony’s Spider-Man-less cinematic universe.

Here's an older article the article above references that mentions the R-Rating: Sony Plans Venom R-Rated Sci-Fi Horror Movie



Anyway, the point is information on the internet gets compounded so quickly with newer headlines all the time that perception shifts. The whole oh it's for kids kind of thing Avi Arad seems be playing in some of his most recent interviews understandable. That being said, I do think they should clarify things from the outset to some degree. A film shouldn't be envisioned as a soft R with potential to backslide if it involves messing with it to make it a PG-13 movie through cutting a lot of scenes or messing with tone in post-production. This sort of stuff I have a high suspicion took place with this movie and it seems perception of this will eventually be lost if it already hasn't been.

It seems the studio either meddled with the film in post-production or if did in fact plan from the outset to have it pg-13 then intentionally coasted off of a misperception. The fact they weren't making the movie connected to the Spider-Man films raised some people's curiosity level when nothing was known about the film to think that perhaps the studio may be aiming at doing something they otherwise wouldn't do if worried about drawing Spider-Man into R-rated territory. Skepticism was high from the outset so an odd route for this braintrust at Sony to take into making a people pleaser film while coasting off any misperceptions various headlines may generate as long as it generated word of mouth.

 

[nightwing06]

People are saying it's worse than Catwoman,so if i go in with low expectations maybe i will like it.

 

[Rjones1325]

At long last, after much anticipation, we have “Venom”, the movie nobody except Sony wanted. Since they don’t have their precious spider to milk for cash anymore, they have to substitute it with something else… Something that is spider-related but not quite. Oh wait, SYMBIOTE! It’s like Marvel raided Sony’s dungeon and saved Spider-Man and some of his villains and left them with the film rights to their third-tier characters. Venom was somehow left behind with the bunch AND NOW WE HAVE THIS MOVIE! That Sony Universe was going to happen one way or another.

Here's My Review of VENOM: Venom Review: Sony and Their Stupid Symbiote

 

[All-Father]

So, this looks like a major flop, it seems.

 

[ludovica]

People are saying it's worse than Catwoman,so if i go in with low expectations maybe i will like it.

That's not true, some compared it to Catwoman, but no review said it is worse.
Besides, it is solid, Venom fans should give it a chance: most forum members who saw it yet, like me, liked it enough, check the user reviews thread.

 

[Sundancer]

It''s not as bad as Catwoman.

 

[Blade X]

Not only is this movie a hit, it also set a box office record for October. Thus proving wrong all of those selfish adult fans who insisted that a VENOM should and could only be R rated in order to do the character justice and be be a hit at the box office. I said it before, and I'll say it again, characters like Venom,Deadpool,Wolverine,Punisher,and Ghost Rider were ORIGINALLY created for and aimed at all ages and DO NOT need to be R rated in order to tell stories featuring those characters and to get their point across to the audience.

'Venom' Delivers October Opening Weekend Record While 'Star is Born' Shines - Box Office Mojo

 

[Incarnadine]

I thought it was ok, not amazing or anything, but watchable with pretty good humor.
Looking at BOM it has a budget of $100m and a WW opening weekend of $205m so it will end up being a modest hit if it hits a respectable 2.5x WW multiplier (a tad over $500m), it might do a bit less or its legs could surprise.

I personally would have preferred a hard R, maybe they'll do it with a sequel.

 

[Incarnadine]

Whoa, I just looked at RT and I have never seen such a huge disconnect between the critics score and the audience score.
Critics: 32% (4.5/10)
Audience: 89% (4.4/5)

 

[Abudefduf]

The kind of people who vote on Rotten Tomatoes are the same nerds who spend their day yelling at each other on the internet. It's an audience score in name only.

 

[Sorath]

I just got done see Venom and I loved it. I was not really sold on the movie when heard about it I wasn't super hyped about see it. The trailers just before it came out made me a tad bit interested in see it. Today was my only day off and I wanted to see something and it was the only thing decent playing. I'm glad I did because it was really good. Their a few issue I had with the film especially the final fight scene but nothing that I felt ruined the film. It's well worth going and see.

 

[BaronZemo]

The character was notndone justice and Brock wanna wuss nothibgblike the comics alsobthe moviebwas genuinely bad. Apocalypse level bad.

 

[TheFuture]

People are saying it's worse than Catwoman,so if i go in with low expectations maybe i will like it.

It's not but a hatchet job was definitely done in the editing room. Worst case of it I've actually seen. With films like Justice League you can at least tell that they're trying to get away with it but here it just felt like the middle act was removed without a second thought.

I was perplexed once the film arrived at its climax as I just couldn't understand how we had got there.

 

[nightwing06]

So can Venom work as a stand alone character and movie without a hint or whisper of Spider-Man?


PRAISE:The Jekyll and Hyde back and forth between Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom.
The character design and some of the SFX and voice work.Some good action sequences and some laughs here and there


PROBLEMS: Even going in with extremely low expectations,i left the theatre disappointed.
What was with all the slapstick? The script is schizophrenic,with additional memory lapses.The delivery of lines was extremely grating and terrible.
Michelle Williams talents....wasted.Riz Ahmed cookie cutter cliched villain.
To many quirky moments reminded me of some of those lame comedies from the 80's
One action sequence goes on for painfully to long.
The film is just all over the place.
I hope SONY doesnt go forward with Black Cat or Kraven the Hunter
At least they still have Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse up their sleeves.


Scale of 1-10 a 3½

 

[Tymminator]

I've seen worse comic movies, but "Venom" really wasn't that good. I feel X-Men: Apocalypse was better than Venom.
If it came out around 2003-2005 it would probably fit right in, but IMO "UPGRADE" was a similar and vastly superior film.

 

[All-Father]

Gotta watch it. It seems to be, at least, fun!

 

[Yowza]

a hatchet job was definitely done in the editing room. Worst case of it I've actually seen. With films like Justice League you can at least tell that they're trying to get away with it but here it just felt like the middle act was removed without a second thought.

I was perplexed once the film arrived at its climax as I just couldn't understand how we had got there.

That's what I thought and just expands on what I was trying to say above.

It seems to me in recent interviews circulating this past week, Tom Hardy perhaps is trying extra hard to keep his tongue in check despite having a ball it seems on set getting along with everyone.

Tentpole movie's have a process about them that I think perhaps in this case occurred too much in post-production. When this movie was announced, no media articles really seemed able to ascertain Sony's braintrust's intentions with this project.

With the Morbius movie, I think if they want to do tentpole and pg-13 then develop it like this from the ground-up. Know the audience, the story, and the tone as too many other wheels in motion once actual production starts. Simple stuff first please Sony?

 

[ludovica]

The character was notndone justice and Brock wanna wuss nothibgblike the comics alsobthe moviebwas genuinely bad. Apocalypse level bad.

Auto correct is a wuss.
Do you mean this movie will usher the end times? Did you dislike it so much?

 

[Donner]

I had fun. It wasn't as great as it could have been, but I'm hoping for the sequel that the mid credits scene teased. I do love Venom.

 

[jaqua99]

I've seen it twice.

People who like a film based off of how technically proficient it is won't like it. Riot is a filler. His host is a ridiculous one dimensional sociopathic cartoon villain all full of camp. The plot is super loose, secondary and the movie is FULL of plot holes. In a way, its a bit of a mess.

That said, all of these things can be overlooked, for me personally, because the movie is very much a buddy cop sort of movie. All the flaws and week plot threads and plot holes are secondary, this movie is 100% about the relationship and the development of a bromance between Brock and the Venom symbiote. Due to that, Tom Hardy's performance, and Venom's personality, the movie was a blast to watch.

The weak plot holes almost were part of the humor. Venom has a change of heart in a day? And the reason why he has a change of heart, and the way he describes it to Eddie got a genuine "are you kidding me?" belly laugh out of me.

I loved it, can't wait for it to come to Xfininty, and I can't wait for the sequel.

 

[Sundancer]

The bad guys were so generic, but nothing was as bad as

Spoiler

casting Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady in a lousy Sideshow Bob wig no less

 

[Vaibow]

I agre

I've seen it twice.

People who like a film based off of how technically proficient it is won't like it. Riot is a filler. His host is a ridiculous one dimensional sociopathic cartoon villain all full of camp. The plot is super loose, secondary and the movie is FULL of plot holes. In a way, its a bit of a mess.

That said, all of these things can be overlooked, for me personally, because the movie is very much a buddy cop sort of movie. All the flaws and week plot threads and plot holes are secondary, this movie is 100% about the relationship and the development of a bromance between Brock and the Venom symbiote. Due to that, Tom Hardy's performance, and Venom's personality, the movie was a blast to watch.

The weak plot holes almost were part of the humor. Venom has a change of heart in a day? And the reason why he has a change of heart, and the way he describes it to Eddie got a genuine "are you kidding me?" belly laugh out of me.

I loved it, can't wait for it to come to Xfininty, and I can't wait for the sequel.

I agree - i walked in as a favour to my nephew and actually really liked it, the highlight was Brock and the symbiote's relationship - i wasn't bored, i felt the villain was too typical but whatever! I didn't really see any obvious plot holes, or cared enough to worry about them. Hardy def saves this movie tho - any other actor and i feel it would have been lost on people. I don't get the tongue in cheek references, like the begin self aware... i didn't get that vibe but would love to hear a few examples.

This movie was fun and was more horror than super hero - i actually can't see how he and spiderman will want to face off.

 

[8ulk87]

Is Venom an A+ movie ? Hell no. Is it a fun at the cinema ? F**K YES.
People need to understand that RT score doesnt matter and Superhero films are not meant to be Saving Private Ryan , The Goodfellas or The Shawshank Redemption.

Venom delivered where it needed to. In the fun times at the cinema department.
Personally i enjoyed a lot even though it bothers me its not in the MCU and it doesnt have Spiderman in it. I wish Sony goes bankrupt and stop ruinning the genre.

I dont give a rats ars for the sequel with Carnage which sadly is gonna be PG13. To hell with Sony.

Btw movie is killin it at the boxoffice and China will not open till November. Way i see it Venom is heading for a $575-675 mil WW total.

Domestic: $142,802,151 37.8%
+ Foreign: $235,300,000 62.2%
= Worldwide: $378,102,151

 

[Yowza]

Is Venom an A+ movie ? Hell no. Is it a fun at the cinema ? F**K YES.
People need to understand that RT score doesnt matter and Superhero films are not meant to be Saving Private Ryan , The Goodfellas or The Shawshank Redemption.

Venom delivered where it needed to. In the fun times at the cinema department.
Personally i enjoyed a lot even though it bothers me its not in the MCU and it doesnt have Spiderman in it. I wish Sony goes bankrupt and stop ruinning the genre.

I dont give a rats ars for the sequel with Carnage which sadly is gonna be PG13. To hell with Sony.

Btw movie is killin it at the boxoffice and China will not open till November. Way i see it Venom is heading for a $575-675 mil WW total.

Domestic: $142,802,151 37.8%
+ Foreign: $235,300,000 62.2%
= Worldwide: $378,102,151

Quite a curveball of a message I've read in a while.

Sony take note on what it means to simply average out creative vision constantly looking for acceptance while doing so.