Sony’s relationship to Marvel Studios is one of the strangest aspects of the MCU, as its ownership of the Spider-Man film rights has led to some odd decisions over the past few decades. After the end of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, Sony finally agreed to let Spider-Man appear in the MCU, with both studios having a shared partnership during the production of the Spider-Man films. However, Sony has attempted to capitalize on the success of Spider-Man‘s MCU tenure separately from Marvel Studios, leading to one of the oddest domino effects in recent Hollywood history and the catastrophic failure of a massive superhero franchise.
Just before Spider-Man’s MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War, Sony began developing another Marvel movie in March 2016. This project was to follow one of Spider-Man’s most iconic villains, although it would be independent of the MCU and not feature Spider-Man at all. This decision may sound odd, and the result was even odder, with the story of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe beginning with the release of 2018’s Venom.
Despite being one of the villains most heavily reliant on the character of Spider-Man, Sony thought Venom was the perfect figure to launch their own franchise of Marvel characters. A film centered on Venom has been in various stages of development since the ’90s, with New Line Cinema developing a project centered on Venom and Carnage. After the film rights for Venom were purchased by Sony, the character made his big-screen debut in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, and a Venom spinoff movie began development shortly after. However, the cancellation of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man franchise caused the demise of this version. Eventually, Sony began developing a Venom spinoff movie as part of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise, with the studio planning to release it sometime after the third film. This, too, was cancelled after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 underperformed at the box office.
However, the fourth attempt at a Venom film is the one that succeeded, with it hitting theaters on October 5, 2018. Venom stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, telling a revised version of the character’s origin story that doesn’t include elements like Spider-Man. Instead, Venom is portrayed as heroic throughout, with Eddie and the symbiote working together to take down a dangerous symbiote named Riot.
Despite only receiving mixed critical reviews, Venom was a massive hit at the box office, with it making $856.1 million against a budget of $116 million. The movie released at the perfect time, as while it wasn’t part of the MCU, it definitely benefitted from the franchise’s popularity at the end of the 2010s. Venom‘s success was great news for Sony, leading them to fully launch the next phase of their bizarre Marvel franchise.
Venom proved that standalone movies about Spider-Man villains could work separate from the MCU, causing Sony to begin production on even more. The franchise would accelerate in the early 2020s, with 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage acting as the second film in the franchise and creating a connection to the MCU that Marvel Studios mostly ignored. This would wind up becoming a trend in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, causing the overall franchise to seem even more poorly planned than it was.
Sony attempted to move beyond Venom with the release of Morbius, the second entry in the franchise. Morbius became an online meme, was a box office disappointment, and was torn apart by critics, with this being one of the first signs that this franchise may not work out. Then, Madame Web hit theaters in 2024, and it wound up being an even bigger box office disappointment than its predecessor. This is when Sony began to pull back, with announced projects like El Muerto and Hypno-Hustler quietly stopping development.
The franchise’s penultimate film was 2024’s Venom: The Last Dance, which concluded the trilogy and proved that Venom was easily the best part of the franchise. It performed better critically and commercially than Morbius and Madame Web, and it seemed to be wrapping things up for the franchise. Finally, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe went out with a whimper with the release of 2024’s Kraven the Hunter, which wound up being one of Sony’s biggest box office flops ever. Now, Sony’s Spider-Man Universe is seemingly over, with Sony instead focusing on animated films like the Spider-Verse series and shows like Spider-Noir. However, it’ll always be interesting to look back on the odd cinematic experiment that began with Venom eight years ago.
Time for you to have your say: did you like Venom? Let us know in the comments.
