Tom Hardy’s $856 Million Sci-Fi Juggernaut Is Taking Over Streaming Again

Since his cinematic debut in Ridley Scott‘s war epic Black Hawk Down, Tom Hardy has done just about everything on the big screen. He’s shown off his dramatic chops in films like the Western survival flick The Revenant and the prison drama Bronson, ventured into sci-fi with Inception, and delivered one of the finest actioners ever made in Mad Max: Fury Road. However, it took him a minute to break into the superhero genre for the first time. The wait was more than worth it, though, as he gave a memorable performance as the backbreaking villain Bane in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises opposite Christian Bale‘s Batman.

Six years would pass before Hardy would suit up for another superhero feature, but this time, he finally got to be the hero… sort of. Venom, directed by Ruben Fleischer, stars the Oscar nominee as Eddie Brock, a journalist who finds himself bonded to an alien symbiote while trying to expose the human experimentation done by Life Foundation leader Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Together, they are the fan-favorite Spider-Man anti-hero Venom, and they have superhuman abilities to fight crime on the streets and take down the corrupt, like Drake, though the organism is initially more interested in using their powers to devour Earth’s inhabitants. Their wild first adventure together took the box office by storm with $856.1 million while becoming an audience favorite. This week, it also proved its staying power on the global charts.

Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off surged to second place on HBO Max‘s film charts globally, only just falling short of the recently added Anaconda reimagining with Jack Black and Paul Rudd. It managed to place at #2 in eleven separate countries and chart high across the world, albeit without any help in the U.S., where it’s available on Disney+ instead. The international success is fitting, considering over $640 million of Venom‘s box office haul came from overseas. All the global love for the symbiote helped power this franchise to two sequels and inspired the decision to explore more of the extended Spider-Man cast with less than stellar results.

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‘Venom’ Will Live on in Animated Form

Though Eddie and Venom had their Last Dance with the 2024 trilogy capper, Venom has since been given new life. Back in February, it was announced that Sony Pictures Animation was developing a new film based on the anti-hero, with Final Destination Bloodlines filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein directing. A writers’ room opened to come up with a potential idea, and producers Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are all back to work on the project. Hardy remains involved, which means he could be back to voice Venom, but he may also just be serving as a producer.

Venom is now streaming on HBO Max internationally and Disney+ in the U.S. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest films coming to and leaving streaming throughout the year.

Release Date

September 28, 2018

Runtime

112 minutes

Director

Ruben Fleischer