In the lead-up to the release of Venom, last week saw an unlikely rivalry develop between the symbiote’s supporters and Lady Gaga fans, with the former accusing the latter of spreading negative reviews of the new comic book movie in order to improve A Star is Born’s chances at the box office. Despite this alleged smear campaign, Ruben Fleischer’s film trounced Bradley Cooper’s critical darling with a record-breaking opening weekend.
But now we arrive at weekend number two, and while Venom is projected to be at the top once again, A Star is Born still has the potential to nab the crown. To put this into figures, Variety reports that the Tom Hardy-led flick is expected to rake in $30 million domestically this weekend, while Star is put at $28 million.
That being said, reports on Thursday indicated a head start for the Gaga vehicle, kicking off the four-day stretch at $4.5 million to Venom‘s $4.33 million. Should Sony’s antihero outing come out on top for a second weekend though, it would be the first to do so since Crazy Rich Asians, which triumphed for three straight weeks back in August.
To compare Venom with a few members of its own field, a recent ranking of the opening weekends of superhero origin movies placed the Ruben Fleischer-helmed film ahead of the better-reviewed Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Needless to say, a sequel feels like a distinct possibility at this point, with Fleischer’s feature even teasing the follow-up’s villain with its mid-credits sequence.
While Venom took quite the thrashing from critics, the film’s CinemaScore of B+ suggests that there’d quite more than a few moviegoers who’d pay to see Tom Hardy trade blows with Carnage. But first, the symbiote’s second round with Gaga rages on.
