It doesn't really matter what critics think at this point as Venom has unquestionably become a big hit for Sony at the box office. The Marvel Comics adaptation has been raking in the dough ever since it debuted in theaters earlier this month and with the additional haul it took in over the weekend, the movie has crossed a major milestone. Venom has now made more than $500 million at the box office worldwide, meaning that a Venom 2 announcement is all but assured and could be coming any day now.

Over the weekend, Venom brought in another $10.8 million at the domestic box office and, along with its international grosses, the movie has made a grand total of $508. 3 million. Considering the comic book flick was made for a reported budget of $100 million, that makes it quite successful. Sony also has merchandise to consider, in addition to the eventual Blu-ray/DVD sales, cable, streaming and rental money. All of this to say, like it or not, this is going to wind up turning a big profit for the studio and that means Venom 2 is almost definitely going to happen.

This serves as an interesting and important development. While critics generally didn't like Venom, as it currently sits at 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences have really responded to it, with the audience rating resting comfortably at a very solid 87 percent. There's certainly something of a disconnect there and this isn't a home run on all phases like many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have been, but it's proved to be successful enough for Sony to move ahead with, not only sequels to this movie, but other Spider-Man spin-off movies that they've been somewhat quietly developing behind the scenes.

Sony made a deal with Marvel Studios a few years ago to allow for Spider-Man to appear in the MCU alongside The Avengers. This led to Spider-Man: Homecoming as well as the character's appearance in this year's Avengers: Infinity War. But that left Sony with literally hundreds of characters tangentially related to Spider-Man that were just collecting dust. So, starting with Venom, they began to develop movies based on some of these characters in the hopes of creating their own little Marvel spin-off universe. So far, at least from a financial point of view, that's going pretty well. Next up, they intend to make a Morbius the Living Vampire movie, with Jared Leto set to star in the title role.

As for Venom 2, expect Sony to make some sort of formal announcement in the relatively near future. Tom Hardy previously revealed that he signed a three-picture deal, so that won't be an issue. The post-credit scene from Venom also helped set up the villain for the sequel, which will end up being the fan-favorite Carnage, portrayed by Woody Harrelson. Much like the Transformers franchise, it doesn't really matter what critics think to some degree. The only lesson Hollywood really cares about is the money lesson. Would Sony like critics to be more on their side next time around? Sure. But from their perspective, why fix what isn't broken? These numbers come to us from Box Office Mojo.