Sony has high hopes for Venom. After handing the reins back over to Marvel Studios for their beloved Spider-Man character, they created Venom in hopes of eventually riding on the coattails of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as was relayed to us by the director of the film last week. But does this film have a chance in hell in actually making enough money to justify this?

Yesterday, it was reported by Deadline that Venom would have a solid $160M-$175M debut, which includes an October domestic record-opening between $60M and $65M. That’s pretty great and would usurp Gravity as the record-holder, which made $55.7M in its own opening weekend several years back. But since then, things have changed slightly.

The first reviews have it, and while there are some who enjoyed what they saw, it does have a 27% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that, so far, only 27% of critics would recommend it. Given that the projections kind of relayed on generally favorable word of mouth, it’s hard not to wonder if Venom will actually deliver on this. Well, if we’re to look at history, I’d say it doesn’t have a chance in hitting that number.

RELATED – Does ANYONE AT LRM Actually Want To See Venom? | A Breaking Geek Discussion

If we are to look at history, Batman v Superman, a film that got a similar 27% Rotten Tomatoes score, it performed just a tad low of its $170M projections. However, that’s a film that eventually suffered at the box-office longterm, not even breaking $900M worldwide, despite having two heavy hitters on their side, leading the film’s title. Given that Venom doesn’t have nearly the same recognition, and given the sheer number of amazing comic book movies we get, I don’t think audiences are very tolerant of anything less than “great” when it comes to their comic book adaptations.

I’m no professional analyst, but I will say I’d be surprised if the film took in more than $50M in its opening weekend, but even if it does, this bad reception is bound to have negative long-term ramifications on the film’s performance, and maybe the future of these standalone Sony films going forward.

Venom hits theaters this weekend!

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

SOURCE: Deadline, Variety