‘Venom 3’ Tries to Make Box Office Lightning Strike One More Time

Six years ago, Sony found a new Marvel box office hit with “Venom,” starring Tom Hardy as the Spider-Man nemesis-turned-dark-antihero who won over audiences with a level of camp that caught everyone off guard.

Now, after a successful 2021 sequel, theaters are getting the trilogy capper “Venom: The Last Dance,” which will try to follow in the steps of its predecessors and win over fans despite leaving critics unimpressed with a 40% Rotten Tomatoes score. And it’s showing once again how the franchise is the most successful IP in Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff universe, which has otherwise struggled theatrically.

At a time when many tentpole films, including the recent flop “Joker: Folie a Deux,” have seen their budgets inch higher and higher, Sony and Columbia Pictures have kept “Venom 3” to a relatively low $120 million before marketing costs.