The dire reviews seem to have done nothing to keep folks away from Venom over the weekend as it pulled in $80 million, breaking the opening weekend record for October by around $25 million (set by Gravity in 2013). For what it’s worth, I think the public made the right choice on this one and I’d guess most of them came out of the film having had some fun, though the current CinemaScore puts it on par with Suicide Squad. Venom is a horribly flawed film, but to call it bad is unfair to its somewhat perplexing ability to be enjoyable despite all of its issues.
Oh, it also wasn’t the only smash success this weekend. A Star is Born stormed out of the gates as counter-programming and locked in a $42 million box office. That would have easily been number one in almost any other October weekend in history. The two movies combined to make this the biggest October weekend in history.
A bankable Oscar-bait movie and a hit superhero flick? Warner Bros. and Sony had a really good weekend that could stretch on for quite some time given the hype Oscar films get and the lack of other superhero movies hitting until December.
Source: Destructoid Venom is not turd as it destroys October box office record