‘Venom’ Blu-ray Steelbook and Retailer Exclusives Revealed

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Tom Hardy's Venom to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray with retailer exclusives offered by Best Buy, Target and Amazon.

Best Buy's exclusive steelbook is the latest in the Project PopArt line of upgraded packaging, featuring the titular half-man, half-alien on its front cover. The standard Blu-ray and DVD steelbook is priced at $29.99, while the same steelbook is priced at $34.99 for the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray set.

The Target exclusive edition comes packaged with a 24-page gallery photo book, featuring images from the Ruben Fleischer-directed film and its set. The "hardcover gallery book" is available only as a Blu-ray-DVD-digital combo pack for $27.99.

Amazon's exclusive edition boasts limited edition packaging created exclusively for Amazon, featuring a "unique foldout glossy package" created by artist Marko Manev. The limited edition is already a sought-after collector's item as the Amazon exclusive is now marked "currently unavailable."

Venom has webbed up $846 million worldwide since its October debut, outgrossing Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man ($821m), 2004's Spider-Man 2 ($783m), 2012's Marc Webb-directed reboot The Amazing Spider-Man ($757m), and 2014 sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($709m).

Sony's new Spider-Man-less franchise launcher is still behind 2007's Spider-Man 3 ($890m), where the character made his big screen debut, and 2017's Marvel Studios-backed Spider-Man: Homecoming, the second highest-grossing Spidey-centric production at $880m worldwide.

With a reported budget of $100 million, Sony will use Venom as a springboard to launch its planned "Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters."

Star Tom Hardy, who plays investigative reporter Eddie Brock and alien alter-ego Venom, has already inked a three-movie deal to headline a Venom trilogy and is expected to square off against serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) in its first sequel.

The studio possesses the rights to roughly 900 Marvel Comics characters, according to Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch, who told Variety the studio is "focused on being faithful to the comics."

Sony is eyeing a standalone feature for longtime Spider-Man foe and sometimes anti-hero Morbius the Living Vampire — to star Suicide Squad's Jared Leto in the titular role, with Venomproducers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach on board and already teasing Leto's "awesomeness" — and is hopeful to start up projects starring supporting characters like Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Kraven the Hunter.

The studio, which soon releases the animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, has since dated two Marvel Comics adaptations for July and October 2020, dates likely staked for Morbius and Venom 2, respectively.

Venom releases to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray December 18.

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