Venom: The Last Dance Box Office Officially Passes DC’s Highest Earning 2023 Movie’s Entire Gross In Just 4 Weeks

Venom: The Last Dance has surpassed the total box office gross of DC’s best-performing movie from 2023 in only four weeks. Venom: The Last Dance‘s ending seemingly closed out the trilogy for good, which likely factored into the film’s box office performance. Venom has been a profitable franchise and, despite apparently ending, Venom 3‘s post-credit scene leaves the door open for future stories if Sony chooses to tell them. Although the performance of the upcoming Marvel movie, Kraven the Hunter, will likely have an impact on the Sony Spider-Man Universe, Venom 3‘s box office success speaks for itself.

In only four weeks, Venom 3 has outgrossed the entire box office run of 2023’s highest-grossing DC movie: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. These figures come from Box Office Mojo, which has Venom 3‘s worldwide box office total marked as $456 million thus far. Aquaman 2, however, only earned $439 million in its entire theatrical run. Not only does this mean potentially big things for the Venom series and the Sony Spider-Man Universe, but it also says a lot about the state of DC in 2023.

What Venom 3’s Box Office Beating Aquaman 2 Means

Concerning Venom specifically and the upcoming Spider-Man movies, Venom 3 beating a movie like Aquaman 2 could mean the production of a sequel. Despite Venom 3‘s seeming finality, there are ways Sony could resurrect the character/franchise should the studio desire it. Given that 2018’s Aquaman grossed over $1 billion, Venom 3 outperforming its sequel will give Sony food for thought regarding continuing the series.

From the perspective of DC, Venom 3 beating Aquaman 2 goes to show how poor the state of the franchise was. 2023 was a historically poor year for DC movies, from the failure of The Flash to the underwhelming performances of Aquaman 2, Shazam 2, and Blue Beetle. To put it into perspective, Venom 3 is the worst-performing movie in the trilogy commercially. Regardless of this, Venom 3 still surpassed the best-performing DC movie of 2023 in only a month, proving that James Gunn’s upcoming DCU slate is needed now more than ever to reinject life into Marvel’s rival.

Our Take On Venom 3’s Box Office Beating Aquaman 2

In all honesty, I was not all that surprised to hear that Venom 3 surpassed Aquaman 2‘s box office. As alluded to, DC films have struggled of late; Aquaman 2 is the highest-grossing movie in the DCEU since the first movie in December 2018, bettering the eight theatrical movies released since then. Only DC productions outside of the DCEU like Joker and The Batman have managed to outgross Aquaman 2 since 2018, so – as I have stated – it does not come as a surprise that Venom 3 performed better.

After all, the Venom franchise has undoubtedly been the strongest commercial pull for Sony Pictures in the Sony Spider-Man Universe. Now, I am hoping that Sony realizes Venom should remain at the center of whatever plans the studio has going forward. The continued setup of Venom 3‘s Knull as a universe-altering threat is intriguing but without Venom, I cannot see how it would succeed. With Venom: The Last Dance performing better than every DC movie since 2018, Sony may finally put full stock in the titular character rather than less compelling ones like Morbius or Madame Web.

Source: Box Office Mojo