Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock/Venom is crashing the summer movie season for the first time as Sony Pictures has set a July 12, 2024, release date for its third “Venom” movie. The film is untitled at this time. Hardy’s previous two comic book tentpoles, 2018’s “Venom” and 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” both opened at the start of October. Sony’s “Venom 3” release date puts in square in the middle of Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” (July 5, 2024) and Universal’s “Twisters” (July 19, 2024).
Sony has also dated the fourth “Bad Boys” movie, which will once again reunite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The untitled sequel will open over Father’s Day weekend on June 14, 2024. That puts the action tentpole up against Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2.”
In addition to the new dates, Sony made several major changes to its release calendar, including delaying “Kraven the Hunter” and a “Ghostbusters” sequel to 2024, and removing “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” from the calendar.
“Bad Boys 4” was announced at the start of the year and is the sequel to “Bad Boys for Life,” the third installment of the long-running action franchise that earned $426.5 million at the worldwide box office in winter 2020, just ahead of the COVID pandemic shutting down theaters. “Bad Boys for Life” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah return to direct the fourth movie from a script by Chris Bremner.
The original “Bad Boys” earned $141 million worldwide, while the 2003 sequel “Bad Boys II” totaled $273 million. “Bad Boys for Life” managed to outgross the previous two entries combined.
As for “Venom 3,” Sony confirmed that a third movie in the Tom Hardy-led franchise was moving forward during CinemaCon in 2022. The first “Venom” film grossed $856 million at the worldwide box office. “Let There Be Carnage” took a drop amid the pandemic but still earned $502 million worldwide. Notably, “Let There Be Carnage” debuted to $90 million in the U.S. compared to “Venom’s” $80 million debut during non-pandemic times.
Hardy cracked the story for “Venom 3” with collaborator Kelly Marcel, who is stepping into the director’s chair to helm the tentpole. Marcel once again has screenwriting credit after penning the first two “Venom” movies.
