The new Venom movie starring Tom Hardy might not have gotten the best critical reception, but that hasn't kept the film from performing exceptionally well at the box office. The movie pulled in $80 million in the US and Canada for the Friday-Sunday period, according to EW. That sets a new all-time October record, destroying the $55.8 million that the previous record-holder Gravity made in October in 2013.

Venom's strong performance exceeds expectations, as industry projections estimated that the film would make somewhere in the $55 million-$70 million range for its opening weekend in the US and Canada. Venom also opened internationally this weekend, and it made a combined $125.2 million from all international markets, pushing its global haul to more than $200 million after three days.

With a reported budget of $100 million, it appears Venom is already a commercial access. The end credits bonus scene in Venom strongly hints at the sequel and its main villain--you can read GameSpot's end-credits scene breakdown here to learn more. Director Ruben Fleischer told GameSpot that this scene was meant to lay the groundwork for Venom 2.

Movie critics generally did not enjoy Venom--it has a lousy 32% on Rotten Tomatoes and 35 on GameSpot sister site Metacritic--but audience scores were much higher. The movie boasts a B+ CinemaScore rating, which is strong and suggests that second-weekend box office will stay strong with word-of-mouth. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on Venom's box office performance.

Venom's success was expected given that the film enjoyed the highest Thursday night preview in history for October. It brought in more than $10 million, which also outpaces both Ant-Man ($6.4 million) and Doctor Strange ($9.4 million).

Venom finished the October 5-7 US/Canada weekend easily in the No. 1 position, beating out the other high-profile newcomer, the Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga musical A Star Is Born. You can see the full Top 10 list below.

In our Venom review, Michael Rougeau wrote, "Venom has all the ingredients of a decent superhero movie--10 or 15 years ago. With spotty CGI, poorly drawn characters, tonal inconsistency including forced 'edginess' and awkward humor, sidelined female characters, and even cringeworthy licensed musical cues, it feels like a relic from the distant, pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe past. That may in part be attributed to the fact that it's been in production in one form or another since at least 2008. But its problems go way past simply being 'old school,' and ultimately, Venom lacks the charm, clarity, and ambition superhero fans have come to expect."

October 5-7 US/Canada Box Office