Tom Hardy's Venom franchise box office beat three original Avengers

Sony's Spider-Man Universe scored a big win with its Poison franchise with a total box office that surpassed three of the Avengers in the MCU. Sony is reportedly halting production on its Spider-Man Universe films after Kraven the Hunter performed poorly with critics, earning a paltry 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and earning just $26 million globally during its opening weekend. This is a far cry from the early days of Sony's Spider-Man universe, where Poison grossed US$856 million worldwide. The cancellation is therefore logical, as Sony appears prepared to cut its losses following a significant downward trend.

PoisonThe success of can be largely attributed to the character's overall popularity among Marvel fans, with his star power only being beaten by Spider-Man himself and most (but not all) of the MCU's charismatic cast. It's no surprise that Sony achieved this popularity with two sequels, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Venom: The Last Dance. Although these sequences failed to reach the same heights as Poisonthey were enough to prove that the character is even more popular than three of the MCU's main Avengers with their collective box office success.

Venom film trilogy surpasses 3 original Avengers box office totals

The big three remain at the top

Iron Man may have helped launch the superhero genre into the stratosphere, but his solo debut was one of the lowest-grossing of any member of the Avengers, as the genre has yet to transform into the beast it currently is. Still, at the time The Avengerscombined the star power of its six founding members and earned Marvel Studios' first billion dollars, Iron Man 3 followed suit and significantly bolstered the Iron Man franchise's coffers. The Venom trilogy itself went in the opposite direction and earned progressively lessalthough this was enough to surpass three other Avengers.

Although the main franchises have three or four films each, The Venom Trilogy Gets a Significant Advantage about the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye franchises, which have two, one and zero independent films, respectively (including the 2003 one). Hulk). The Incredible Hulk remained the lowest-grossing MCU film for some time leading up to 2023 The wonders achieved that undesirable praise. With fans falling out of favor with Sony, it's no surprise that their trilogy failed to match up to the MCU's Big Three. Still, Venom has proven to be more popular than some other Marvel heroes.

Venom's box office also surpasses 6 other MCU heroes

Newer, lesser-known heroes fall short of Venom's $1.8 billion

While Venom has always struggled to measure up to the likes of the Big Three and Spider-Man (the highest-grossing MCU franchise to date), it has at least surpassed a number of MCU franchises starring less renowned characters. While Captain Marvel escaped with a whopping $1 billion when it was released in 2019, the titular hero's overall success was significantly hampered by the aforementioned failure of its sequel, The wonders. Meanwhile, newer characters like Shang-Chi and the Eternals only have one film each – although they are unfortunately among the lowest-grossing in the MCU.

Of all the franchises that Venom surpassed with its trilogy, only Ant-Man has the same number of films. Not even introducing the former arch-villain of the multiverse saga, Kang the Conqueror, could sufficiently change the Ant-Man franchise's $539 million average. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniawhich raised US$463 million. This makes Ant-Man's latest appearance in the MCU his lowest-earning to date, just as Venom: The Last Dance achieved the same for the Venom trilogy. However, it stands to reason that Venom would outperform a character like Ant-Man.

Why Venom's Box Office Is Bigger Than Several MCU Heroes

Sony handled the fan-favorite character well

Venom remains one of Marvel's most popular characters, which is why there was so much pressure on Sony to do right by the character. Although reviews – especially from critics – have been largely mixed for the Venom franchise, Tom Hardy's version of Eddie Brock and Venom was always a standoutsatisfying most fans with its frenetic portrayal. It helped prove that Venom can exist without Spider-Man, as the wall-crawler has not been seen anywhere in Sony's Spider-Man universe and Venom trilogy, although there is still hope for a live-action showdown between the two rivals.

However, it's hard to ignore how Venom surpasses the MCU heroes in less than three films, excluding Ant-Man. This indicates that the overall quality of his films (and the cinematic universe they're set in) hasn't hit the mark, much like most of the characters in the MCU. If Venom had maintained its momentum after scoring a win in its debut, he would be on a trajectory that could even rival that of Spider-Man. Now that Sony's Spider-Man universe is no more, it's up to any potential reboot to help put Venom over the top.

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  February 14, 2025
  

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  July 25, 2025
  

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  July 24, 2026