‘Venom’ and ‘Into The Spider-Verse’ Boost Sony To Big Quarterly Profit

With Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse swinging into theaters late last year, the feature-length animated film helped propel Sony to one of their better quarters on paper as of late. From October to December last year, Sony Pictures reportedly earned more than $2.54 billion, allowing them to end up posting a quarterly profit of $107 million in the last quarter of the calendar year.

Though Spider-Verse was the studios’ last theatrical release of the year, there’s no denying that Venom was a big help for Sony’s pocketbook. Released domestically on October 5th, Venom turned into a box office darling for the Culver City-based studio.

The Ruben Fleischer-directed movie ended up grossing just $213.5 million domestically but was much more successful overseas. Nearly 75% of the movie’s total earnings — $641.4 million, to be exact — came from foreign markets.

Venom’s biggest market came in the form of China, where it earned an astonishing $272.2 million. In comparison, Avengers: Infinity War earned $359.5 million while Aquaman made $297 million.

Spider-Verse, on the other hand, was a more mild winner for Sony. Though the animated flick might still be on some screens across the country, it’s largely wrapped up its box office run with a worldwide haul of $340.6 million. Half of that — $170.8 million — came domestically.

Both films were financially successful enough for Sony to greenlight future sequels. In addition to a direct Into The Spider-Verse sequel, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) will get a starring role in a Spider-Woman spin-off. Venom, on the other hand, is also receiving a direct sequel in addition to being a part of a shared universe of Marvel characters.

Venom 2 is set to feature a script by Fifty Shades of Grey scribe Kelly Marcel. Though he has yet to be confirmed to return as direction, Ruben Fleischer previously told ComicBook.com that he wanted to feature Cletus Kasady/Carnage (Woody Harrelson) as the villain of the sequel.

“So, when we were thinking about including that scene and laying the groundwork for a potential sequel, he was the first person I thought of and a just because selfishly I’m really excited to work with him again, whether it’s in Zombieland 2 or the potential sequel to this film,” Fleischer said. “But if you think about Natural Born Killers and Mickey, the character he played in that film, I feel like there’s a real lineage that you can trace from Mickey to Cletus and I also think that he hasn’t gone dark in that way for a while.”

What’d you think of Venom and Into The Spider-Verse? Are you surprised either helped Sony with their big quarterly earnings? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me (@AdamBarnhardt) on Twitter to talk about how Venom‘s lobster scene is pure cinematic brilliance!

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