The Release of the Venom Film

This article provides an overview of the release, development, packaging, cast, pre-production, production, post-production, marketing, licensing, exhibition strategy, box office, and awards of the Venom film.

Running head: THE RELEASE OF VENOM FILM
The Release of the Venom Film
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Ideology
Venom movie is an American superhero movie based on Marvel Comics personality
of the similar name (Blockbuster Movie Extracts).The work of Venom started on March 2016
on new edition that would begin a new universe. This universe would feature the characters
in the Marvel Comic. Sony Pictures wanted to portray MCU’s Spider-Man: Homecoming,
which gradually distanced the movie from the characters of Spider-Man.
Development
The script was written in the year 1997 by David S. Goyer featuring the characters of
Marvel Comics Venom produced by New Line Cinema. This project was not successful and
character’s right was transferred to Sony Pictures along with the characters of Spider-Man.
Sony Pictures, Dante Harper being the writer of the new screenplay, revived the movie in
2016 March. It was envisioned as an unsuccessful film. Years later, Sony announced the
release date of the movie which was 5 October, 2018.
Packaging and selling
The movie was packaged in various ways. Sony Pictures released Venom poster in
expectancy of the launch of movie, adapted from the comic book. A trailer of the film was
launched in February in the year 2018. A second trailer was also released online. Physical
copy of the movie acted as a teaser for the film. The movie was sold in different theatres all
over the world especially in the U.S and Canada. DVD of the movie was also released on 18
December, 2018 and gained a huge success globally.
Cast
Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal produced the movie Venom. The
production companies include Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Tecent Pictures,

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Arad Productions, Matt Tolmach Productions and Pascal Pictures. This movie was written by
the joint efforts of Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. The movie was directed by Ruben
Fleischer. The main actors of the movie include Tom Hardy as Venom, Michelle Williams as
Anne Weying, Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake, Scott Haze as Ronald Treece and Reid Scott as
Dan Lewis. Life Foundation Scientist Dora Skirth was portrayed by Jenny Slate, Maria by
Melora Walters, the role of astronaut John Jameson was played by Chris O’ Hara and Woody
Harrelson played the role of Cletus Kasady. Paul Franklin was the supervisor of visual effects
of the film.
Pre-Production
Riz Ahmed had joined the film with Matt Smith, Pedro Pascal and Matthias
Schoenaerts in August. They were all first considered to act, having the same role. Michelle
Williams joined the film in September to work as a district lawyer and love interest of Brock.
Jenny Slate, Scott Haze and Reid Scott were in continuous negotiations during October to
join the movie. Whereas Slate was given a role of the scientist. Kelly Marcel was asked to
write the latest draft of the script of the film. The budget that Sony Company has allocated for
the production of the film was 100 million dollar, though Tencent Pictures, a Chinese
company for production has offered a third of the costs for the making of the film.
Production
The main filming of the film started on 23 October, 2017 at Atlanta and New York
city. Mathew Libatique conducted the direction of the photography. Oliver Scholl, the
production designer of Spider-Man: Homecoming was also the production designer of the
movie Venom. Williams had finally joined the film in the month of November, while Sony
organized her schedule of the filming to ensure the unanticipated reshoots on All the Monkey
in the World (2017). By the end of December, Woody Harrelson was supposed to join the

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film whereas Anne Weying was portrayed by Williams. At the start of each day, the recorded
lines were played by Hardy for symbiote which were played back, through an earpiece during
the scenes where the conversation were going between Brock and the symbiote. Hardy
previously had used this method in Legends where he had played twins. Fleischer had
allowed Hardy for improvising on the set. For instance, in a restaurant set, Hardy noticed a
lobster tank and immediately he decided to utilize the tank in any of his scenes. The team of
production design had worked overnight for reinforcing the tank. They had put fake lobsters
into it in order to help Hardy in his work the next day. Throughout the process of filming
Hardy worked with Marcel for rewriting few of his dialogues for both Venom and Brock. The
remaining filming was conducted in San Francisco from 16 January to 26 January 2018.
Post Production
It was announced that Scott and Ahmed would appear in 2018 February. It was also
revealed that Will Beall wrote additional content on the script of the film. It was also revealed
that Sott Deckert and Sope Aluko were going to be casted in the movie. Other appearances
include Haze and Harrelson. Carlton Drake was played by Ahmed. Harrelson had worked
with Fleischer previously on Zombieland (2009), had also signed for a minor role in the film.
The role allotted to him was that of Cletus Kasady who was the alter-ego of Carnage. The
film had to undergo reshooting in June at Los Angeles, which were constantly overlooked by
Hardy. Venom had taken advantage of the facilities of post-production that Sony Pictures had
offered in Culver City, California. They made two theaters for sound design using the
technology of Dolby Atmos, sound mixing equipments of Avid Technology’s Pro tools and a
theatre for visual effects and reviewing the color grading. Alan Baumgarten and Maryann
Brandon conducted the editing work of the movie. Fleischer focused was to cultivate the
bonding and the conversation between Venom and Brock as he found that to be the main part
of the movie. Several iterations took place during the start of the film. Fleischer wanted to the

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film to have a huge impact, which led to the crash of a spaceship in the first scene of the
movie. The introduction was followed by the Venom symbiote before the plot of the villain
became the focus of the film.
Marketing
At the Comic Con Experience 2017, Hardy and Fleischer made a video from the sets
of the film for promotion for the panel of Sony Picture. The movie teaser was released in
February 2018. Dani Di Placido found the release of the trailer, a mistake by Sony Pictures as
the portrayal of the character in Spider-Man could be a disadvantage for the uninterested fans
of Spider-Man (Marich and Robert). The new footage was presented by Rothman at the
CinemaCon 2018. During the trailer of the movie, Jenny Slate pronounced the word
symbiote wrongly. This had led to major criticism from the commentators. The second trailer
was viewed 64.3 million times in less than 24 hours. Hardy, Ahmed and Fleischer promoted
the movie in San Diego Comic-Con where Venom masks were distributed to the audiences
and were asked to chant ‘we are Venom’. At the panel, symbiote riot was debuted. The third
trailer was released online. It was thoroughly criticized by Scott Mendelson as he found it
similarity of the film with Catwoman. The comic book served as both teaser and sequel of the
film. The physical version of the movie was distributed to those who bought tickets from the
AMC Theatres.
Licensing
Venom has 15 rating from the Board of Film of Britain. Venom has a rating of PG-13
from USA. This means having age of 13 years or under needs a guardian or parent to go
along with to watch the film. Based on the script British Board of Film Classification has
given a rating of 12A.

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Exhibition Strategy
The premiere of the movie was conducted at the Regency Village Theatre in
Westwood, Los Angeles. It was released in the theatres of Canada and United States. It was
followed by releases in many other countries where 20,800 screens were playing
internationally in the opening week. 726 IMAX theaters also released in 60 different markets.
The movie was also released in China on 9 November 2018. The film board of the country
experiencing a sudden drop in the sales approved this date. The Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment released a digital edition of the movie on the 11 December 2018. The physical
version featured extended and deleted scenes. The film was constructed as a romantic
comedy for the releases in home media.
Box Office
Venom made a gross profit of 213.5 million dollar in Canada and United States and
641.5 million dollar in all other places which means a total of 855 million dollar was the
profit of the movie. Deadline Hollywood announced that the movie required profit of 450
million dollar to break even. It was the sixth most commercial release in the year 2018.
Venom made profits of 10 million dollar in the markets of Canada and United States.
Globally it was expected that the film will debut to 160-175 million dollar inclusive of the
100-110 million dollar of the 58 other territories outside U.S.
Awards
Venom had gained popularity around the globe. Los Angeles Online Film Critics
Society Awards nominated Tom Hardy for the Best Visual Effects. Visual Effects Society
Awards nominated Aharon Bourland, Federico Frassinelli, Jordan Walsh and Aleksandar
Chalyovski for the outstanding effects simulation in a Photoreal Feature on 5 February 2019.

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Reference
Blockbuster Movie Extracts. "Venom 2018 - All Best Scenes | Full HD | 1080P |". Youtube,
2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WLbMLa56wM.
Marich, Robert. Marketing to moviegoers: a handbook of strategies and tactics. SIU Press,
2013.