The Subversive Unseriousness Of 'Venom'

Tom Hardy's comedically unconventional star turn and unsubtle LGBTGIA-friendly metaphors have allowed a series meant to mimic Marvel to avoid superhero decline.

Venom: The Last Dance got off to a solid start in China with $9.4 million on Wednesday. I wouldn’t expect the threequel to earn anywhere near what the first Venom earned ($269 million) in the Middle Kingdom in 2018 because it’s just a different world in terms of Hollywood imports rocking out in China. However, Let There Be Carnage didn’t even get a Chinese release as part of a soft ban on Marvel movies from 2021 to early 2023. Even if it must settle for a mere over/under $100 million total, A) that’s better than the $65 million earned by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (versus $298 million for Aquaman) and B) that’s around $100 million that most other tentpoles won’t get, let alone one that only cost $120 million. That said, Chinese moviegoers who liked the original Tom Hardy flick will likely enjoy this threequel.

I’m not just talking about the healthy supply of murderous monsters and symbiote creatures offering a fair share of silly kaiju violence. Venom 3 shows a franchise that is comfortable in its skin and aware of its unique strengths and comparative limitations. The Venom franchise began as a craven, lazy, cynical IP cash-in seemingly born from the (industry-wide) wrongheaded notion that moviegoers want cinematic universes and superheroes in the abstract. It is now oddly innocent and specific, even compared to the brand it initially tried to emulate. A franchise intended to mimic the success of the MCU is now protected against comparative superhero decline by the extent to which it stands apart from that franchise. Thanks to Tom Hardy’s “aiming for an Oscar and a Razzie for the same performance” free-for-all, the Venom franchise accidentally learned the “right” lessons from Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios.