Tom Hardy’s Hit Is Back on Top of Streaming Charts and Proving the Critics Wrong
Tom Hardy’s symbiote send-off refuses to go quietly. ‘Venom: The Last Dance’, which hit theaters on October 25, 2024, continues to chart among the top 10 on several streaming platforms globally, including iTunes, Google, Amazon, Rakuten, Play, and TOD, showing just how much staying power it has with audiences. The resurgence, flagged by Collider, is a vivid reminder that fan loyalty can have a longer half-life than any critical review.
Tom Hardy returned for one last ride as Eddie Brock when the film opened strong with a domestic debut of around $51 million, eventually finishing with over $478 million worldwide. Made against a budget of around $120 million, it easily turned a profit for Sony on the back of Hardy’s stardom, even while landing as the lowest-grossing entry in the trilogy. Numbers like those have a way of keeping a film in the cultural conversation long after the credits roll.
Critics may have been mixed, but fans were largely on board. The film holds a 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is actually one of the highest-rated entries in the Sony Spider-Man Universe. Unlike its predecessor ‘Let There Be Carnage’, which was criticized for feeling rushed and tonally disjointed, ‘The Last Dance’ felt more polished and confident, with a villain in Knull who felt like a genuine cosmic-level threat rather than a throwaway bad guy.
Director Kelly Marcel, who wrote all three films and made her directorial debut with this final chapter, had long known how the story would conclude. Speaking to People ahead of the theatrical release, Marcel said, “We knew it would be three. We knew it was a trilogy and we knew it would end like this from the beginning.” That long-term creative vision, developed alongside Hardy over the better part of a decade, gives ‘The Last Dance’ an emotional weight that fans clearly feel on rewatch.
The supporting cast is equally stacked, with Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Rhys Ifans all bringing energy to the film’s sprawling final act. Andy Serkis also turns up as Knull himself, a casting choice Marcel had quietly been building toward since production on the second film. It is the kind of layered storytelling that rewards multiple viewings, which goes a long way toward explaining the current streaming surge.
The wider Venom trilogy has now earned a combined worldwide total of nearly $1.8 billion since the first film opened in 2018, a staggering run for a franchise that critics never fully embraced but audiences consistently showed up for. Meanwhile, an animated Venom film is reportedly in pre-production with Hardy attached as a producer, suggesting the symbiote’s story may not be finished after all.
For a film the industry once labeled divisive, ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ is making a compelling case for a second look. Let us know in the comments whether you think this one deserves more credit than it originally received.
