Gerard Butler‘s “Hunter Killer“ was left fighting in the shade while four returning films stole the box office spotlight in the weekend before Halloween.
Fittingly, the top movie was “Halloween,” itself — picking up $32,045,000 in its second weekend, which is several million more than the next two films on the chart combined.
Blumhouse
“Hunter Killer” was killed by the same devilish trio that dominated last week, and in the same order — “Halloween,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Venom.” On top of that, “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween“ also beat “Hunter Killer,” with the “Goosebumps” sequel taking fourth place.
“A Star Is Born” once again topped “Venom,” even though it was the other way around when they debuted together.
But “Venom” is winning the global war — picking up $321M so far at the foreign box office, on top of its $187M domestic tally, for a total of $508,382,314 so far. “A Star Is Born” just cracked $100M at the foreign box office, but its nearly $150M domestic tally now puts it at $253.3M.
It’s not even really THAT bad for “Hunter Killer” to open in fifth, considering it played in 2,728 theaters, vs. about 1,000 more theaters each for the top four. (“Goosebumps 2” got a bump of 202 extra theaters this week, to pick up more pre-Halloween family visits, and that helped.)
Then again, that $6.65 million domestic opening is lower than the original estimates for “Hunter Killer,” which reportedly cost around $40M to make, with Gerard Butler picking up about $10M on his own.
Warner Bros.
But considering the positive audience reactions, “Hunter Killer” — which also stars Gary Oldman, Common, Michael Nyqvist, and Linda Cardellini — should at least pick up more interest on Digital/DVD/On Demand. And maybe also at the foreign box office.
In other news, Jonah Hill‘s feature directorial debut “Mid90s“ just scraped into the Top 10 despite only opening in 1,206 theaters.
A24
Here are the top 10 weekend estimates for October 26-28:
1. “Halloween” – $32,045,000 2. “A Star Is Born” – $14,145,000 3. “Venom” – $10,800,000 4. “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” – $7,500,000 5. “Hunter Killer” – $6,650,000 6. “The Hate U Give” – $5,100,000 7. “First Man” – $4,935,000 8.”Smallfoot” – $4,750,000 9. “Night School” – $3,255,000 10. “Mid90s” -$3,000,000
“Johnny English Strikes Again“ and “Indivisible“ just missed the cut, opening in 12th and 13th places, respectively, as they played in less than 1,000 theaters. But that’s just over here. Rowan Atkinson‘s comedy sequel has already made more than $100 million at the foreign box office. “Suspiria“ only opened in two theaters, but it managed to take No. 21 on the chart with the weekend’s best per-screen average — $89,903.
All told, the October 2018 box office was one for the record books. According to Deadline, total weekend ticket sales for all films this weekend were up 32 percent from last year. And ComScore reported a new October record of $789.9M, topping October 2014’s $757.1M record.
Jamie Lee Curtis‘ return as Laurie Strode earned $77.5 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office. That makes it the second-best horror opening of all time, after “It” with $123.4 million. “Halloween” also had the second-best ever October opening after “Venom,” which just set that record with $80.2 million.
Considering “Halloween” was made off a reported production budget of $10-$15 million, there is going to be A LOT of champagne popped over this result, which topped early expectations by quite a bit.
Universal
“The Nun” just opened to $53.5 million — the best of The Conjuring Universe so far — so R-rated horror is doing very well at the moment. According to Deadline, the top domestic horror film openings are now “It” ($123.4M), “Halloween” 2018 ($77.5M), “World War Z” ($66.4M), “Hannibal” ($58M), and “The Nun” ($53.8M).
Fans seem pretty pleased with the new “Halloween,” which arrived 40 years after the first film: “Halloween” got a B+ CinemaScore, while the other new wide release — “The Hate U Give” — earned an A+ from polled moviegoers.
Jamie Lee Curtis had tweeted support for early “Halloween” watchers as they attempted to knock “Venom” down off the No. 1 spot it had owned for the past two weeks. She followed with a “boast post” on the successful opening:
In other fun news, “A Star Is Born” also topped “Venom” this week, for the first time since they both opened.
Here are the top 10 weekend estimates for October 19-21 at the domestic box office:
1. “Halloween” – $77,501,000 2. “A Star Is Born” – $19,300,000 3. “Venom” – $18,105,000 4. “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” – $9,715,000 5. “First Man” – $8,565,000 6. “The Hate U Give” – $7,500,000 7. “Smallfoot” – $6,615,000 8. “Night School” – $5,000,000 9. “Bad Times At The El Royale” – $3,300,000 10. “The Old Man & the Gun” – $2,050,000
Both “The Hate U Give” and “The Old Man & the Gun” are newcomers to the top 10. Welcome!
20th Century Fox
And pity poor “First Man.” It tanked in its opening last weekend and got only half of that in its second week. It was made for roughly $59-$70 million and has only picked up $55 million so far — and that’s including the worldwide gross, not just domestic. Ouch.
“Venom” and “A Star Is Born” took first and second this weekend, just like they did last week. And just like last week, their tallies were much higher than the rest of the domestic box office releases.
“Venom” earned $35.7 million in its second weekend. That’s a drop of 55.5 percent from its opening, but still more than enough to stay number one. So far, Sony’s Marvel Universe film has earned $378,102,151 worldwide.
Director/star Bradley Cooper‘s “A Star Is Born” added 22 theaters — still leaving it with about 500 fewer than “Venom” — and picked up $28 million. That’s a drop of 34.7 percent from last week.
Sony
Ryan Gosling was actually the third man with “First Man,” which earned $16.5 million in its opening weekend. It barely got third place, too, just squeaking by “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween,” which earned $16,225,000. That family sequel actually had a higher per-screen average than “First Man,” since it opened in about 100 fewer theaters.
“First Man” came in slightly below the $17M-$20M forecasts, Variety noted; this is Gosling’s fifth best opening, behind “Gangster Squad” in 2013, which opened to $17.07 million.
Do you think this will hurt the Oscar chances for “First Man”? Guess we’ll see.
The other wide release opening this week was “Bad Times at the El Royale,” which had — wait for it — a bad time at the box office with a seventh place opening. The star-studded R-rated thriller only picked up $7,225,000. That’s less than “Night School,” which took sixth place even though it actually played in fewer theaters than “El Royale.”
Fox
“First Man” got a B+ CinemaScore from polled moviegoers; “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” got a B; and “Bad Times at the El Royale” got a B-.
In better news, “Beautiful Boy” had its very limited release this weekend — picking up $221,437 from only four theaters, placing it at No. 18 on the box office chart. That may not sound great, but it gave the Steve Carell/Timothée Chalamet film a per-screen average of $55,359. (Contrast that to the $8,400 per-screen average for “Venom” at No. 1).
Here are the top 10 weekend estimates for October 12-14:
1. “Venom” – $35,700,000 2. “A Star Is Born” – $28,000,000 3. “First Man” – $16,500,000 4. “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” – $16,225,000 5. “Smallfoot” – $9,300,000 6. “Night School” – $8,035,000 7. “Bad Times At The El Royale” – $7,225,000 8. “The House With a Clock in Its Walls” – $3,975,000 9. “The Hate U Give” – $1,765,000 10. “A Simple Favor” – $1,380,000 (“The Nun” just missed the cut by $5,000)
Sony
According to Deadline, this week’s combined box office numbers for “Venom” and “Goosebumps 2” just pushed Sony past $1 billion at the domestic box office. They hit $1 billion earlier in the year than they did in 2017, and the last time they hit $1B before that was in 2014. Disney, Warner Bros., and Universal already hit $1 billion earlier this year — Disney is gliding past $2.75 billion. Show-offs!
Everyone else in the top 10 and beyond was way down the line — No. 10 was “The Predator” with only $900,000, for comparison. But at least No. 3 “Smallfoot” and No. 4 “Night School” were in eight digits — at $14.9 million and $12.75 million respectively.
“A Star Is Born” has an A CinemaScore from viewers, high praise from critics, adoring Gaga fans, and music lovers calling the soundtrack an instant classic.
“Venom” has a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers, and almost no praise from critics. But it made about twice as much as “A Star Is Born.”
Why?
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Well, the most obvious answer is because “Venom” is a comic book movie following a Marvel character in the Spider-Man universe. Never mind that it’s not connected to Tom Holland‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point, and Spider-Man isn’t in the movie. It’s still a Marvel movie, starring popular Tom Hardy, and it made more than “Ant-Man and the Wasp” did in its domestic opening.
“Venom” also has a much, much higher Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score than critical score, and the Audience Rating is actually slightly higher for “Venom” than “A Star Is Born.” (IMDb users rated “A Star Is Born” much higher than “Venom.”) That could be from “Venom” fan trolling in response to the “A Star Is Born” trolling. Or it could be just another example of the very real fan/critic divide.
Sony
“Venom” may not be in the MCU (yet) but it followed the MCU’s path of PG-13 movies instead of R. That’s in hope of future MCU crossovers with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and company, and also to give this movie a better chance to do well. It worked!
“Venom” is the debut of Sony’s Marvel Universe, and it’s a strong enough start to expect to see more. In addition to the $80 million domestic tally, “Venom” also picked up a hefty $125.2 million overseas for a current worldwide total of $205,230,000.
According to Deadline, “Venom” marks Sony’s seventh best domestic opening of all-time behind “Spider-Man 3” ($151.1M) — which also featured Eddie Brock/Venom, as played by Topher Grace; “Spider-Man: Homecoming” ($117M) – a team-up with Marvel Studios; “Spider-Man” ($114.8M); “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” ($91.6M); the Bond film “Skyfall” ($88.3M); and “Spider-Man 2” ($88.1M).
Sony
“A Star Is Born” made $42.6 million this week, if you count the early screenings. But even without them, it’s WB’s second biggest October opening after “Gravity” ($55.7M), which went on to win seven Oscars.
“A Star Is Born” is a musical romantic dramedy, but it ended up with the R rating that many “Venom” fans wanted for that film. The musical still did fantastic in its opening — for its genre, for this time of year, for anything — but without an R it would’ve picked up even more money.
There are also run times and theater counts to consider. “Venom” is 1 hour 52 minutes, with “A Star Is Born” at 2 hours 15 minutes. Shorter films can play more times in a given theater in a given day. “Venom” was given 4,250 screens to play with. “A Star Is Born” had 3,686. The per-screen average for “Venom” was $18,831 vs. “A Star Is Born” with $11,191.
“A Star Is Born” also topped the money “The Predator” made in mid-September for its opening (in more theaters). “The Nun” made $53.5M when it opened — which is more than “A Star Is Born,” even though it too was rated R and opened on 3,876 screens. You just can’t top a nasty nun; it’s gospel truth.
Here are the weekend estimates for October 5-7:
1. “Venom” – $80,030,000 2. “A Star Is Born” – $41,250,000 3. “Smallfoot” – $14,900,000 4. “Night School” – $12,275,000 5. “The House With a Clock in Its Walls” – $7,295,000 6. “A Simple Favor” – $3,435,000 7. “The Nun” – $2,610,000 8. “Hell Fest” – $2,075,000 9. “Crazy Rich Asians” – $2,060,000 10. “The Predator” – $900,000
Critics gave “Venom” a trouncing, but that didn’t stop the Tom Hardy-starring film from landing an all-time best October opening night.
According to Boxofficemojo.com, “Venom” took in $10 million from Thursday night previews at 3,543 locations. The beats “Paranormal Activity 3,” which earned $8 million in previews and $52.6 million in its first weekend in 2011.
Boxofficemojo. com reports that Sony is expecting a $55 million opening, but Deadline projects “Venom”‘s opening weekend take could be as high as $65 or $70 million.
It looks likely to beat “Gravity,” which set a best October opening in 2013 with $55.7 million.
Meanwhile, Oscar bait “A Star is Born” is doing quite well with a projected $41 million opening.
Together, both films will probably exceed the weekend in October 2015 when “The Martian” opened with $54 million, followed by “Hotel Transylvania 2” with $33 million and “Sicario” with $12 million.
If, for some reason, you miss the superhero adaptations of the 1990s and early 2000s, “Venom” might be right for you.
It feels like a movie that is largely unaware of the progress that has been made to tell stories that are both authentic to their source material and sophisticated enough for audiences unfamiliar with that material to experience them in a real way. That it stars Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams, two of the most gifted and consistently interesting actors in Hollywood, makes it an additional curio, but one assumes that the second or third homes they purchased with their paychecks was worth the experience of making this misguided, gobsmacking mess.
Hardy plays Eddie Brock, a San Francisco investigative journalist who scuttles his job and his relationship after ambushing Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) with confidential information stolen from his fiancée, attorney Anne (Williams), during what was supposed to be a puff piece interview with the billionaire industrialist. Six months later, a broke and alone Eddie has abandoned reporting for the solace of the bottom of a bottle, but when Life Foundation scientist Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) contacts him with evidence that Drake is testing alien biology on poor and homeless subjects — merging them with “symbiotes” — he reluctantly agrees to see for himself.
During his visit to the Life Foundation, Eddie is infected with a symbiote of his own, a creature called Venom. It bestows him with incredible powers, but as he soon learns, Venom expects to use Eddie’s body for its own destructive purposes. As Life Foundation foot soldiers come to retrieve the escaped alien, Eddie and Venom forge a tenuous bond via an ongoing internal dialogue, even if — outwardly — it seems like the poor human is certifiably crazy. But each is forced to decide what side they are on, and what is worth fighting for, when the duo discovers that another symbiote, Riot, has bonded with Drake and intends to turn Earth into a host planet for his species to consume.
Sony
One of the reasons that Hardy took the role of Eddie Brock/ Venom was reportedly because his son was a big fan of the character, but notwithstanding the anecdotal charm of that decision, it doesn’t seem enough for an actor of his caliber, and certainly given the bizarrely uneven effort he puts into his performance. Indeed, it’s hard not to evaluate the film in light of many comments from many of the people who made it — especially director Ruben Fleischer, who vacillated between saying the film was always going to be R- and PG-13-rated, and hedged in recent interviews about how deliberately funny it’s supposed to be — since the end result is stupefyingly incomprehensible.
I mean, Hardy is the literal face of this anti-hero origin story, but its failure is not his fault; that the film (and his character’s journey) intermittently resembles “Teen Wolf” and “Liar Liar” (complete with Hardy channeling Carrey’s manic energy) explicitly feels like the byproduct of the worst sort of committee thinking.
That said, if by chance one developed a misbegotten affection for the Andrew Garfield-Marc Webb “Amazing Spider-Man” movies (which, like this, it’s no coincidence that Sony produced largely independently of Marvel), then you might actually like “Venom.” It feels as if the studio executives saw the reactions to those films and tried to just maximize superhero CGI stuff in this, eliminating anything resembling mythology or character development. It’s kind of astonishing how bad both Hardy and Williams (and Ahmed, for that matter) are in this movie, but Eddie and Anne are barely one-dimensional characters with almost nothing of substance to do. The script, by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel, is painfully anemic whenever it isn’t serving as a delivery system for symbiote-driven CGI, leaving the actors to improvise and react to developments and events that never bother to be tethered to reality, much less basic logic.
Even as a person who read comics during the character’s heyday, Fleischer’s film leaves a lot of lingering questions, but in retrospect, they seem unimportant in the grand scheme of whatever cinematic universe Sony is trying to create. (That I can remember just a few of them feels like one of the few victories of this noisy, ugly, disjointed movie.) In which case it’s hard to decide whether you want this movie to fail or succeed; if it follows in the footsteps of the Webb “Spider-Man” movies and “fails,” for example, perhaps Sony will hand the reins back over to Marvel to do with this character what they did with “Homecoming.”
But if it succeeds, the Spider-Verse may finally get its own “Batman and Robin,” and I suppose that even after hating “Venom” from start to finish, I would be curious what that might look like.
The famous Marvel villain, first introduced in “The Amazing Spider-Man” issue 300 (way back in May 1988), has made it on screen before, more than ten years ago in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 3.” But in that film, he was little more than a cameo in an already overstuffed piñata of a Spider-Man movie; fans wanted a movie exclusively devoted to the alien symbiote and his human host Eddie Brock. And now, finally, they have it.
In the film (opening nationwide on Friday), Brock (played by Tom Hardy) is an intrepid reporter who is looking into the shading dealings of a technology company run by Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), as a more-openly-evil Elon Musk. This gets him fired, of course, but his quest for answers also exposes him to the alien symbiote known as Venom (also Hardy). While he’s not exactly a hero, the two personalities work to stop Drake from unleashing unimaginable horror on the world.
And as difficult as preventing the apocalypse must be, it was probably equally painful to bring the character to the big screen, a job that fell directly on director Ruben Fleischer. We got to sit down with Fleischer and talk to him about what it was like bringing Venom to the big screen, especially without mentioning everybody’s favorite neighborhood wall crawler.
Moviefone: You’re somebody whose name is always brought up for these big franchise movies, but — until now — you’d still never done one. What made you finally commit to “Venom?”
Fleisher: What got me really excited about this movie was that we were doing something new. I felt with “Venom,” we had the opportunity to launch a whole new world, a whole new character. Beyond the fact that I had loved the character from the comics for a long time, and think he’s one of the most cool, bad ass characters from the comics, it was the idea for me of doing something new.
Marvel so knows what they’re doing, and DC has such a defined aesthetic, it was fun to get to create something new. That was the driving principle of this film, was to just do something that felt a little different from everything else. And that’s something that’s obvious in the tagline, which is, “The world has enough superheroes. Embracing the antihero nature of the character, to the aesthetic of the film, which I’m really proud of. I think the tone is really distinctive in terms of that horror/comedy/thriller/action vibe that it lives in.
The tone is definitely distinct. Did you do any experimenting to find that balance?
From the original script, there was always a lot of personality to Venom. And even from the comics, you have this huge, hulking, scary figure — with giant teeth and whatnot — but he always had great lines. He would always say, “Mmm snacks!” He was always really funny. So I wanted to do justice to the comics and have a mix of tones. I think that’s ultimately why people love him; you can have this scary, menacing character, but it’s undercut by that goofy tongue or the great lines he has or his relationship with Eddie. And for me, that [tonal mixture] was always inherent to the film from its inception.
Sony
Was there anything that you looked to for inspiration? There definitely seems to be an “American Werewolf in London”-vibe to some of it.
You hit the nail on the head, both in terms of its mixture of horror and comedy. But it’s also the story of somebody who is possessed by something and he doesn’t really know what it is and it becomes a mental breakdown. The werewolf was a great metaphor for Venom, in the way that a human is possessed by something else and physically transforms. The big difference is in the werewolf model, usually the human goes to sleep and the werewolf comes out. When the human is awake, the werewolf isn’t talking to him. But true to the Venom comics, it’s always about the relationship between the two. They’re always talking to each other, whether Venom is in Eddie or Eddie is in Venom. Even those scenes from the comics where Venom comes out and talks to Eddie directly, it’s all about their relationship.
Obviously, Venom is heavily indebted to Spider-Man. Was there ever any talk of integrating that universe into this? We saw those set photos of Tom Holland.
Those aren’t real.
Really?
Yeah.
So there was never Spider-Man as a part of “Venom?”
From its inception, at least as long as I’ve been a part of it, there was always a defined rule — no Spider-Man. The challenge, obviously, is that in the comics he’s so defined by Spider-Man. But because of “Spider-Man 3,” we kind of saw the true-to-the-comics version and — because of corporate stuff I don’t understand and probably shouldn’t talk about — we couldn’t use Spider-Man in this movie. So that put the onus upon us to create something original.
So I approached the film as the kind of “Ultimate” version of Venom. That’s what my guiding principle was, reimagining a different origin, reimagining whether it was the Life Foundation — pulling things from the canon of the Spider-Man universe, but making him ours, and allowing Eddie and Venom’s story to stand on their own two feet.
Were there incredibly strict guidelines? It’s interesting to see Venom and not see the white spider on his chest.
We couldn’t use Spider-Man, so that was the ultimate. But maybe we could have used the spider on his chest, but it doesn’t make sense. If he didn’t originate from Spider-Man, it wouldn’t have made any sense. It would have been weird if you have an alien from outer space, occupying a rogue journalist, and — all of a sudden — there’s a spider on his chest. That’s not to say in the future, if ever Venom and Spider-Man were to meet and Venom would return to Spider-Man and come back to Eddie, then he could have the spider on his chest. But up until that point, I think he’s spider-less.
Can you talk about the rating of this movie? People assumed it would be R from the get-go. Was that ever the case?
We only ever intended this movie as a PG-13 movie. I’ve said in many interviews that we’re going to push the violence to the hilt and that this would be the most violent Marvel movie, because the character is one of the most violent. But it’s all within the PG-13. The Marvel movies are all PG-13. “The Dark Knight” is PG-13, and that was a huge reference point for me. Because “The Dark Knight” didn’t pull any punches and delivered a really gritty, violent film that was incredibly satisfying and it was PG-13. Some fans may have this blood thirst, I feel like we delivered a really aggressive version of “Venom” that didn’t compromise and is a really satisfying PG-13.
Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock, but also does the voice of Venom. What was that like?
Early on in the process, as soon as he got involved, he’d record lines from the movie in Garage Band and started applying filters to it and would send them to me. He was just excited to create this character with audio. It’s amazing how much personality he’s able to imbue Venom with just his voice. Obviously, there’s the visual component, which I find really satisfying, but Tom was able to create so much interplay between Eddie and Venom and the dynamic of their relationship, all by himself.
Sony
You worked with cinematographer Matthew Libatique, who is amazing, but how did you come up with how this world would look?
That’s one of my favorite things about the film. Matty is a true genius and a master at his art, having made everything from “Requiem for a Dream” to “Black Swan” to “Iron Man.” He’s just one of the best cinematographers working today. What was really important to me was that we distinguish our movie from Marvel and DC.
I wanted it to feel singular in its aesthetic, and grounded and gritty and real in our modern world. I felt San Fransisco, as a backdrop, was cool and distinctive and we really embraced the anamorphic ’80s quality, whether it’s Spielberg or Carpenter — pick your favorite 80s anamorphic movie. We shot it in digital, but we used a lot of old 1970s lenses that give it a softness. It doesn’t feel super crisp and cartoony. It has a richness that gives it a nostalgic quality. Sometimes, digital can be overtly sharp and clean and we really wanted to dirty the image.
We can’t talk about anything you see during the credits, but we can talk about what you can hear, specifically the fact that there’s a new Run the Jewels song during the credits.
I’ve got to say that when I was prepping the movie, I made a playlist of “Venom” songs and it heavily featured Run the Jewels. There’s something about the darkness of their music and the content of their lyrics that I fully embraced and love. It was a dream when we got on the phone with El-P and Killer Mike to talk about what that song must be like. I just love the track that they delivered. It’s a banger. There’s a line, “Hardy har, you’re a laugh, I’m a Riot.” It’s so cool that they managed to get Riot in there. It was just a dream.
I know you’re about to start in on “Zombieland 2,” but is a “Venom” sequel something you’d look forward to returning to?
I don’t know. I’m just focused on “Zombieland 2” right now.
Grab your popcorn, cinephiles, ’cause the drama this weekend should be epic. It’ll happen on and off screen as “Venom” and “A Star Is Born” go head-to-head at the October 5 box office.
The social media embargo forTom Hardy‘s “Venom” was just lifted, with critics posting their initial thoughts online. So far, not so good.
But not so fast! Because some of those tweet “reviews” are just Lady Gaga fans having a laugh to try and get her musical “A Star Is Born” to top the box office this coming weekend. “A Star Is Born” is already 95 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at this point, so it doesn’t really need any more help.
This is not to say that “Venom” is being overly maligned, since “real” critics have been harsh, and you may or may not like it yourself. But it’s worth noting that there’s a campaign in motion to push “Venom” down — and then a backlash campaign to push “A Star Is Born” down.
This is what our society has come to. It is clear we can’t just get along.
BuzzFeed did a good job of collecting some of the suspicious tweets:
Beware of fake #Venom movie reviews. There are people trying to promote Lady Gaga's #AStarIsBorn and are fabricating negative reviews. Look out for bots and only trust proper and regular reviewers. pic.twitter.com/v9xznuN5R7
BuzzFeed News reached out to one of the users with an anti-“Venom” tweet referenced above. This person admitted they faked an anti-“Venom” tweet out of boredom, and as “a joke between two of my mutuals. We steal each others tweets.”
BuzzFeed added that Lady Gaga’s fans have been known in the past two make fake accounts from stereotypical “Midwestern moms.” Like this obvious joke:
Of course, some “Venom” defenders are chiming in that they’re looking forward to seeing the movie no matter what anyone else says:
to be honest #AStarIsBorn looks quite boring to I'd rather watch #Venom no matter the reviews. Im pretty sure im gonna enjoy it since I enjoyed #justiceLeague no matter how terrible it was.
That one is kind of a backhand compliment, but “Venom” should find its own audience. For one, “Venom” is rated PG-13 and “A Star Is Born” is actually rated R, which might restrict some of its audience.
We’ll see how this rather unexpected box office battle plays out when the estimates come in on Sunday. Will you head out to see either film? Or both?
The upcoming Marvel-Sony spinoff flick “Venom” waffled between shooting for an edgy R rating, or sticking with the more family-friendly PG-13, eventually opting for the latter. It remains to be seen how that decision will affect the final cut, but according to titular star Tom Hardy, the film is already working with less content — and without his favorite scenes.
In an interview with ComicsExplained, Hardy was asked to name his favorite scene in the new flick, which follows the notorious Spider-Man villain, but isn’t connected to the MCU (for now, anyway). And as the actor tells it, there’s some pretty strange bonus content waiting in the wings for its eventual inclusion on the “Venom” home release. (Skip to the 4:40 mark in the video below.)
“They’re scenes that aren’t in this movie,” Hardy said of the moments he loved best. “There are like 30 to 40 minutes worth of scenes that aren’t in this movie… all of them. Mad puppeteering scenes, dark comedy scenes. You know what I mean? They just never made it in.”
It’s hard to say if those particular moments would have affected the film’s rating. After all, how do you turn puppeteering into R-worthy material? (Aside from featuring foul-mouthed subjects, anyway.) But Hardy’s description certainly supports his earlier statements about the film leaning into a tragicomic tone.
And by the way, lest you think Hardy is too broken up about those missing scenes, don’t worry: In his ComicsExplained interview, he joked with co-star Riz Ahmed that he’s now expecting someone to re-edit the clip with “The Sound of Silence” playing in the background, a nod to that infamous Ben Affleck “Batman v Superman” meme.
Can someone turn that into a bonus “Venom” scene??
“Venom” is due in theaters this Friday, October 5.
“Venom” finally hits theaters this week, and this Spider-Man spinoff will answer one important question: Are superhero fans willing to turn out for movies that focus on the villains of the Marvel Universe for a change?
We hope so, because there are plenty of Marvel villains who deserve the spotlight after Eddie Brock. Here are our top candidates.
Doctor Doom
Marvel
Doctor Doom is widely revered as one of the greatest villains in all of superhero comics, yet he’s never really been given his due on the big screen. That’s putting it politely.
Rather than waste time with another Fantastic Four origin movie, we want to see the proud ruler of Latveria succeed on his own term for a change. “Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley is reportedly developing a Doom solo movie, but with Disney buying Fox, we’re afraid that project may be falling through the cracks.
The Enchantress
Marvel
The Thor movies have done a pretty respectable job of cycling through the god of thunder’s rogues gallery, even if that means some of them don’t quite get the attention they deserve (*cough* Surtur *cough*). At this point, the biggest villain yet to be given her due is The Enchantress, a powerful sorceress with an unhealthy obsession with Thor.
We think that unrequited love would make for a great starting point as the movie explores what it’s like to be an Asgardian outcast. And if the movie serves as an excuse to bring back Karl Urban’s Skurge, so much the better.
Kang the Conqueror
Marvel
Few villains have tormented the Avengers as regularly or as viciously as Kang. This futuristic tyrant has mastered the art of time travel and used it to make himself master of the world in various timelines.
The time travel element could result in a really entertaining, mind-bending storyline. And there’s no need to really bring the Avengers into the picture. Because Kang has taken many forms and many identities in his unnaturally long life, he can serve as his own worst enemy. Pit idealistic teen hero Iron Lad against the tyrannical Kang and you’ve got yourself a Marvel movie.
Sabretooth
Marvel
For as many X-Men movies as Fox has churned out over the last two decades, they haven’t made much use of the franchise’s key villains outside of Magneto and a handful of others. Sabretooth is an especially painful case, as Fox completely squandered the opportunity to flesh out Wolverine’s #1 rival in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” This time, we want to see a solo Sabretooth movie that really gets into the back-story of how Victor Creed turned into such a remorseless killer.
Kingpin
Marvel/Netflix
Sure, Wilson Fisk has been getting plenty of screen time on “Marvel’s Daredevil,” with the villain set to play another major role in the upcoming third season. But even with all that exposure, we still want to see more of old Willy.
A feature film would allow Marvel to shine a spotlight on the struggles of establishing a criminal empire in the Marvel Universe. We say keep Vincent D’Onofrio in the lead role, but this time pit him against Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man instead of Charlie Cox‘s Daredevil for a change.
Doctor Octopus
Marvel
As far as Spider-Man movie villains go, none can rival Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus in “Spider-Man 2.” That’s a tough act to follow, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty more that can be accomplished with the character.
As “Spider-Man 2” showed us, he’s a compelling and sympathetic character regardless of his connection to Spider-Man. There’s even potential in an adaptation of the series “Superior Spider-Man,” wherein a dying Otto Octavius hijacks Peter Parker’s body and tries to prove himself a more capable hero. If Sony wants to do a Doc Ock movie set outside the MCU, that might be the direction to go.
Maestro
Marvel
Marvel has clearly given up on trying to do solo Hulk movies. We don’t necessarily blame them, but it would be a shame if Hulk was doomed to forever be a supporting player in other character’s movies. Why not shake things up and make a movie about Maestro instead?
Maestro is an evil version of Hulk from an alternate future, one who’s much stronger and much smarter than his heroic counterpart. We’d love a good post-apocalyptic movie where a bearded Hulk lords over the ruins of a once shining Marvel Universe. Bring some “Mad Max” into the MCU.
Magneto
Fox
We know what you’re thinking. Isn’t Magneto the one X-Men villain who’s been treated right by Fox’s movies? Yes, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve more time in the spotlight. At one point, Fox was planning a Magneto origin movie (before “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” swiftly killed that series).
As it is, X-Men: First Class” is at its best early on, when the focus is on the relationship between Magneto and Charles Xavier and the former’s slow evolution from tortured Holocaust survivor to supervillain. Make that the focal point of a movie and use it to introduce a brand-new Magneto into the MCU.
Taskmaster
Marvel
The Marvel Universe is crammed full of elite, super-powered assassins, but none are deadlier or more entertaining than Taskmaster. This flamboyantly dressed villain has the power of photographic reflexes. He can mimic the fighting style of any person he watches, allowing him to throw a shield like Captain America or slice up ninja goons like Wolverine. The drawback to that is that his memories are constantly fading to make room for all that new data.
That dilemma is the perfect launching point for a Taskmaster movie. Tasky would be great as the antagonist in a “Deadpool” sequel, but we’d just as soon see him as the protagonist instead.
Emma Frost
Marvel
To date, the X-Men franchise has given us two wildly different takes on Emma Frost, one abysmal and one kinda okay. Maybe the third time will be the charm? There’s a huge amount of untapped potential with this character. In the comics, she’s hard to pin down as either hero or villain, as she’s both opposed the X-Men as a member of the Hellfire Club and joined the X-Men for extended periods.
On the surface, she likes to project an aura of calm, detached authority, but there are real flaws beneath her diamond exterior. Flaws that would make for a very compelling X-Men spinoff.
Kraven the Hunter
Marvel
Kraven is pretty low on the totem pole when it comes to powerful Spider-Man villains, yet he’s come closer than almost any of them to actually killing the wallcrawler. One of the most accomplished hunters in the world, Sergei Kravinoff devoted himself to taking down the ultimate superhuman prey.
We’d love to see a movie that adapts “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” a seminal story where a dying Kraven buries Spidey alive and becomes Spider-Man himself. That’s one way to justify a Spider-Man spinoff without having Spidey in it.
The good news is that a Kraven movie is one of several in the pipeline at Sony, so it could happen in the next few years.
Blumhouse
