Venom is on course to break an extremely impressive box office record

Tom Hardy is untouchable

Despite some savage reviews - the current Rotten Tomatoes score is a rough 31% - Venom is big business. Call it the power of Tom Hardy and the pull of finally seeing the iconic Spider-Man villain/anti-hero (depending on your perspective and who's writing him) on the big screen in his own official adventure - Venom is set for a huge opening weekend. Deadline reports that the head-chomping alien is on track to see off stiff competition from Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga Oscar-hopeful A Star Is Born to the tune of $80 million at the American box office. For comparison, A Star Is Born is projected to take home $43 million. Sony, meanwhile, have slightly lowered their own expectations, believing that Venom will close out the weekend with $70 million in the bank. The news will be a major relief to the studio, who appeared to fear the worst if the lack of press screenings and extremely late review embargo were anything to go by. In the end, the critical drubbing didn't put off the public, who have helped Venom smash the previous October domestic record held by Gravity, which debuted in October 2013 to a $55.7 million haul. Sources are split on the overall budget of Venom, with Sony noting that the film cost $100 million to construct before marketing costs are taken into account, while others believe that figure is closer to the $116 million mark. Either way, it appears that that movie needs to make $450 million worldwide to break even.