Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Venom is a 2018 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel and Tencent Pictures. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the first film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel, it stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom alongside Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, and Reid Scott. In the film, struggling journalist Brock gains superpowers after becoming the host of an alien symbiote, Venom, whose species plans to invade Earth.

After Venom's appearance in Spider-Man 3 (2007), Sony attempted to develop a spin-off film based on the character but it did not move forward due to issues with Sony's ongoing Spider-Man franchise. In March 2016, work began on a new version that would start a new shared universe featuring the non-Spider-Man Marvel characters that the studio possessed film rights to. Sony also intended for Venom to share the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), but ultimately distanced the film from Spider-Man. In March 2017, Rosenberg and Pinkner were set to write, with Fleischer and Hardy added in May. Filming took place from October 2017 to January 2018 in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco. The film was primarily inspired by the comic book miniseries Venom: Lethal Protector (1993) and the story arc "Planet of the Symbiotes" (1995).

Venom premiered in Regency Village Theater on October 1, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 5, 2018. Following its release, the film broke several box office records for an October release and grossed over $856 million worldwide, becoming a box office success and the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2018, as well as one of Sony's highest-grossing-films of all time. While the film was positively received by audiences and fans, it received generally negative reviews from critics, who deemed its tone dull and inconsistent, and criticized the direction, narrative, and script, noting the lack of stronger connection to Spider-Man, although some praised Hardy's performance. A sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, was released in October 2021, while a third film is in development.