‘Venom’ Scores Bigger Opening Than First ‘Captain America’ and ‘Thor’ Movies

Sony’s Venom movie may not be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s okay: The makers of Venom are probably happy that the film is raking in money at the box office – even without the esteemed Marvel Studios stamp on it.

In fact, as the box office totals continue to roll in, it’s become readily apparent that not only has Venom set a record for October openings, the film has actually outperformed some of its cousins in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

As you can see above, Venom is now in the company of some of the biggest and best superhero movies of all time – and just to prove that exceptions confirm the rule, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is in that club of $80M+ openings, as well. Meanwhile, Thor falls short with its $65.7M opening – as does Captain America: The First Avenger, with $65M. The hits don’t stop there: Ant-Man and the Wasp (an established and popular franchise) fell short of Venom‘s opening with $75.8M; while other non-Marvel Studios Marvel films like X-Men: Apocalypse and The Amazing Spider-Man also came in below Venom, despite having long franchise momentum behind them.

The other wrinkle in this success story of Venom‘s opening is how this box office was earned on the heels of some pretty scathing critical reviews. Our own Comicbook.com official review (from @BrandonDavisBD) was pretty harsh, giving Venom a 2 out of 5 star score, while stating:

“Inevitably, Venom shows clear plans for sequels and expansions, but the studio should take a look at the few bits of Venom which worked and scrap the larger portions which didn’t if they’re going to continue. That said, more of Tom Hardy in this part wouldn’t be the worst thing to come of it.”

However, Marvel fans seem to be taking a very drastic stand against all those negative critical reviews, as Venom scored a “B+” CinemaScore, which indicates that audiences are having a lot of fun with it, despite any problems with the storyline or direction, which tripped up critics. If Venom continues to wrack up solid number and even outperform some Marvel Cinematic Universe films, it would definitely make the case for Tom Hardy’s Venom being allowed a little more crossover freedom with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man or the larger MCU.

Venom is now in theaters.