'Venom' Tracking for Record-Breaking Box Office Opening

Excitement is starting to stir around Sony Picture's first Spider-Man spinoff movie with Tom Hardy starring in Venom.

Early tracking reports were just updated by Box Office Pro, revealing the film could receive a record-breaking opening at theaters when it debuts in October. The film is currently estimated to open between $55 million and $85 million domestically, bumping up previous numbers that pegged Venom making between $30 million to $50 million.

This report indicates the film could break the box office record for the month of October, currently held by Gravity with a $55.8 opening weekend tilt. Box Office Pro's analytics reveal Venom is tracking high with a 91 percent Average Positive Interest, likely due to the second trailer released at San Diego Comic-Con which showed a darker take on Spider-Man's popular villain.

Venom has impressed some Marvel fans who are looking for a darker, more violent affair in the wake of the success had by Logan and Deadpool, though the tone in Sony's new film is unlikely to be rated R.

A new report from Variety shed light on Sony's plans for their corner of the Marvel Universe, which is said to give them dibs on around 900 Spider-Man related characters. And while they do want Venom to be an edgy superhero movie, they reportedly want to keep the film PG-13 with hopes that Tom Holland could appear in future installments.

Sony's Marvel universe is currently an isolated affair, but studio execs are hopeful that there is potential for crossover with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the future. It remains to be seen if Disney would be open to more Marvel Studios collaboration with Sony.

Sony made a deal with Marvel to have the superhero juggernaut produce their Spider-Man movies in exchange for allowing him to appear in crossover films such as Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Reports of the deal indicate that Marvel Studios would produce a trilogy of Spider-Man movies and would be able to include the Wall Crawler in three crossover films, with that portion being fulfilled with next year's Avengers 4.

It's likely that Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures will want to continue their fruitful relationship beyond these movies, given Spidey's popularity as well as movies like Venom benefitting from a more overt connection to the MCU.

The success of Venom will likely have a major impact on the future of the two studios' relationship.

Venom premieres in theaters on October 5th.