‘Venom’ Smashes October Box Office Record with $80 Million Opening Weekend

Sony is celebrating today because their ridiculous plan to make a Venom movie without Spider-Man actually paid off. The symbiote's first solo adventure racked up an October record opening weekend with $80 million, handily beating Gravity's 2013 opening weekend of $55.7 million.

According to Deadline, the film marks Sony's seventh best opening weekend in North America, and the highest for a film not fronted by Spider-Man or James Bond. Kind of incredible when you consider that this film's marketing campaign started out by not wanting to show the title character at all, and culminated in a final trailer that basically spoiled the entire film. Not to mention Eminem's theme song for the film is basically a plot summary and it's a bit like that Wolverine movie that opened huge despite leaking online weeks before it was scheduled to open.

Did morbid curiosity drive fans to the theaters in droves, as it did for X-Men Origins: Wolverine? We likely won't know until at least next weekend to see how steep the drop in business is. Should Venom hold by at least 50%, the word of mouth won't be considered toxic.

It wasn't all Venom this weekend, either. Lady Gaga's big screen starring debut A Star is Born opened at number two with a whopping $42 million, and is expected to have nice long legs into awards season—not unlike other October hits like Gravity, The Martian, Argo, and The Social Network.

Statistically speaking, some of you had to have seen Venom this weekend. How was it? Sound off in the comments section below.