It has been a while since there’s been a superhero movie and so
Sony/Tencent’s
Venom based off the Marvel property arrives with enough anticipation that will drive its opening weekend to a
$160M-$175M global start with domestic headed toward an October opening record of
$60M-$65M at 4,250 theaters plus Imax, besting the month’s previous high set by
Warner Bros.’
Gravity ($55.7M) in 2013.
Even if the Rotten Tomatoes score for
Venom, which hasn’t registered yet, comes in between 50%-70% fresh, the notion is that
Venom can still maintain a solid opening given the heat that many are seeing on tracking, plus it’s a fresh superhero concept. In the states, the Ruben Fleischer-directed movie is trending quite well with Hispanic and African American audiences as well as older males in definite interest and first choice. Some are betting that
Venom bows to $70M, but that’s wild number hinging on whether the movie winds up swooning critics and mass moviegoers.
Venom‘s stateside comps are more in the range of the Marvel properties such as
Ant-Man ($57.2M)
, Captain America: The First Avenger ($65M)and
Thor ($65.7M) when they first began their cinematic journeys. Sony reports that 26% of the moviegoing audience call themselves
Venom fans versus 46% for
Spider-Man, 35% for
Wonder Woman, and 32% for
Ant-Man. Previews begin Thursday at 5PM in U.S./Canada. Other hurdles impacting older male business this weekend for
Venom is that it’s the first weekend of MLB playoffs, plus UFC fight.
Overseas
Venom will sink its fangs into 59 markets, with three majors still to come (France, Japan and China; a date in the latter still TBD). Industry sources are seeing a $100M+ opening with some as high as $110M. This assumes some big bows in Asia, notably Korea where they like their Marvel.
Foreign comps to consider are
Ant-Man And The Wasp, Spider-Man: Homecomingand
Doctor Strange. Like-for-likes are hard to come by given two of those Marvel pics are from the Disney stable. However,
Doctor Strange’s top plays outside of China were Korea, the UK, Brazil, Russia and Germany which hews pretty closely to how Marvel superhero fare fares.
AM&TW outside China similarly did its best business in Korea, the UK, Mexico, France and Australia.
Homecoming topped out (ex-China) in Korea, the UK, Brazil, Mexico and Japan. The offshore cumes on those films are: AM&TW ($405.3M), Doctor Strange ($445M) and SMH ($546M).
Hardy has an overseas following largely aligned with his Chris Nolan pics, as well as
The Revenant and
Mad Max: Fury Road – the latter also raged in Korea and the UK. There’s further familiarity due to his TV roles in international favorites
Peaky Blinders and
Taboo.
The actor participated in Brazil Comic-Con with a live Skype from the Atlanta set of Venom to the fan event. He was also on Fantastico, Brazil’s top-rated TV show with a viewership of 15M. In London, he drove the host of
Stars in Cars, Germany’s version of
Carpool Karaoke, around town. In France, he took part in TF1’s Saturday evening entertainment show
50 Minutes Inside while also attending a fan event in Russia. Ahmed further appeared on the UK’s Jonathan Ross Show.
For their international digital campaign, the Sony folks partnered with Talenthouse for a global fan art program. Artists, designers and illustrators from around the world were invited to create one-of-a-kind artwork for Venom. Thousands of entries came in, the highest number of submissions in Talenthouse history. Hardy selected five pieces of art and one of the artists was invited to meet the cast and attend the premiere in LA.
Buzzfeed also hosted a
Venom takeover. With Buzzfeed Tasty and Ghetto Gastro’s Jon Gray and Malcolm Livingston, members of the Michelin star chef collective from the South Bronx, Sony created the first ever black and white Tasty videos featuring custom recipes for
Venom donuts, cheesecake and chocolate dipped potato chip s’mores. The videos were released across Buzzfeed’s social channels, earning millions of views.
