Venom is currently the fifth highest grossing movie of 2018.

Let this sink in for a moment.

Of all the great movies that have been released in 2018 (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Deadpool 2, Halloween, Love, Simon etc, Venom has been financially more successful than the lot. As of writing, the film sits behind Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Incredibles 2 to be the fifth most successful movie of the year.

Could this all change by the end of 2018?

Yeah, it’s possible – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Aquaman are all expected to perform quite well before 2018 reaches its conclusion. However, Venom continues to hang in there, with its current box office total standing at a whopping $843,970,652! 

Back in October, when I spoke about Venom I said:

“Venom is not the worst comic book movie I have ever seen, nor is it the worst Marvel movie – Punisher: War Zone (2008), Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011) and Fantastic Four (2015) are all much, much worse. However, Venom is a bad movie. A very bad movie.”

I wasn’t alone in my assessment – taking a quick look on Rotten Tomatoes and the film’s ranking is just 29%! Yet, despite this, the film’s audience score is 86%!

So, what is it that audiences like about Venom that neither I nor critics seem to be able to spot? Answers on a postcard please (or in the comments section if you prefer).