2018 could be called the Year Of The Surprise Hit Movie. Early on, Black Panther -- a film by no means expected to perform poorly -- brought more money and critical acclaim to Marvel's Cinematic Universe than the studio could ever have hoped. Fast forward to December, and the flagging DCEU and Transformers franchises were given miraculous boosts by the success of two secondary characters' solo outings, Aquaman and Bumblebee respectively. (Aquaman's billion-dollar global plunder is still piling up, and while Bumblebee's earnings might be conservative compared to its predecessors, its 93% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes is its own reward.)

None of these hits, however, are as surprising as Sony's Venom.

Venom's first cinematic appearance was in 2007's Spider-Man 3. While the film was the most profitable in Sam Raimi's trilogy, it didn't exactly go over well with critics or fans. The symbiote's storyline was a particular sore point, which Raimi attributed to not being able to "find the humanity" in the character, explaining that the villain had been forced on him by producer Avi Arad. Though he ended up playing third fiddle to Sandman and Green Goblin, Venom had once been set to star in his own movie in 1997, one that would have been produced by New Line Cinema from a script penned by David S. Goyer. Of course, those plans were scuppered once Columbia Pictures/Sony acquired the Spider-Man rights.

RELATED: Bumblebee Tops Global Box Office, Aquaman Nears $1 Billion Mark

After Raimi and Sony parted ways, development on Spider-Man 4 was stopped in favor of rebooting the series as The Amazing Spider-Man. The first instalment performed well -- well enough, in fact, for Sony to revisit the idea of a Venom movie again as part of an extended Spider-Man universe. Screenplays for Venom and Sinister Six were ordered, but once again, never saw the light of day; partly because of the underperformance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but chiefly because of the revelatory news from the 2014 "Sony Pictures Hack" that the Powers That Be at Sony and Marvel Studios were in the early stages of collaborating. The good news that Spidey was coming home to the MCU was bad news for Venom, which would now have to kickstart a Spider-Man movie universe... without Spider-Man.

RELATED: Todd McFarlane Chalks Up Negative Venom Reviews to Aging Critics

Worse still, the first teaser trailer seemed to be for a Venom movie without Venom, an absence that made the accompanying "embrace your inner anti-hero" tagline pretty ridiculous. Critics far from embraced the movie when it was released in October, instead giving it an overwhelmingly negative response that should have been the final nail in the coffin of Sony's "Spider-Verse" dreams, and a sad end to a film 21 years in the making.

But against all odds, Venom became a commercial hit and a social media sensation. On Rotten Tomatoes, its audience rating of 84% sits in sharp, defiant contrast to the critical consensus of 28%, as does its $855.5 million worldwide total at the box office (as of this writing - it may yet go higher). It seems that Avi Arad's instincts about the character's popularity were right on the money a decade ago, but Venom didn't become a monster hit on sheer name recognition alone.

NEXT PAGE: Venom: Critics Hated It, Fans Loved It - But Why?

FANS WERE ON BOARD FOR THE WILD RIDE

After the success Fox had with the R-Rated Deadpool and Logan, it was hoped the stage had been set for Sony's anti-hero film to follow suit, allowing Venom to be reintroduced to movie-goers with unrestricted viciousness. Despite winding up with a neutered PG-13 rating, trailers for the film sold it as a dark, horror-influenced superhero origin story for those who believe "the world has enough superheroes."

RELATED: Venom Director 'Doesn't Feel the Need' to Release an Unrated Version

What we actually got was a tonal jumble that failed to commit to either genre: a horror movie without enough horror and a superhero movie without a superhero. Weirdly, what it did succeed at was being a pretty entertaining buddy comedy. Tom Hardy's unhinged performance playing both Eddie Brock and his potty-mouthed "parasite" earned him comparisons to "mid-'90s Jim Carrey," which producer Amy Pascal agrees was the reason audiences connected with the film. "When he gets in the tub with all those lobsters in the restaurant," she told Vanity Fair, "I thought that was a pretty perfect, zany tone."

VENOM'S MONSTER APPEAL

Debuting in 1984's The Amazing Spider-Man #252, the alien Symbiote fast became a fan favorite Spider-Man antagonist, and it's easy to see why. There's an undeniable appeal to the character's design, from the rows of razor-sharp teeth to the elongated tongue to its twisted reflection of the classic Spidey suit.

That's why Venom's initial absence in the movie's trailers set alarm bells off for some, and why it was a relief to see his Cheshire Cat grin slime its way around Tom Hardy's face in later ones. Paralleling more recent Marvel comics continuity, the film also managed to establish a cosmic origin story independent of Spider-Man, allowing Venom some anti-heroic flexibility.

BIG IN CHINA

More and more, Hollywood movies are looking to China, home to the world's second-largest film market, to prop up their domestic takings. The Fast & Furious franchise is increasingly making more of its money abroad, while 2018's surprise summer hit The Meg, a genetically engineered beast of American and Chinese making, scored $150 million in the country.

RELATED: McFarlane Reveals What Sony's Venom Got Right That Spider-Man 3 Didn't

Venom continued this trend, gobbling up just under $270 million -- a quarter of its total global haul -- in Chinese ticket sales, scoring an extended theatrical release in the process. The film's popularity with Chinese audiences is thought to be threefold: it doesn't pander to East Asian audiences as films like Iron Man 3 were accused of doing; it escaped the harsh censorship that American films usually undergo and, ahead of the film's release, the character was given a huge boost in popularity after inexplicably became a "socialist meme" star.

THE POWER OF 'SYMBROCK'

The contribution of “headcanon” towards Venom’s success shouldn’t be underestimated. Headcanon is fan interpretation of a property’s story and/characters, a reconfiguration that may not look anything like the actual canon its based on. Even before the film’s release, fan art was circulated depicting Eddie and Venom as an inter-species Odd Couple, both in the platonic and romantic sense.

RELATED: Sony's Venom Ultimately Fails Its (Anti-) Hero

Where the latter is concerned, the “Symbrock” pairing rocketed up Tumblr’s Fandometric shipping charts within a month of the film coming out. In this way, Venom took on a life of its own, one that Sony recognized in its repositioning of the movie as a rom-com for the Blu-ray release trailer, and in its marketing of the character to China as the perfect boyfriend material.

CRITICS BE DAMNED

An unexpected side effect of Venom’s critical drubbing was the underdog quality it took on. The Marvel brand has become associated with cinematic excellence, making the prospect of a Marvel movie flop -- even one outside of the MCU -- a novelty that no doubt caught the attention of the morbidly curious.

Some disparity between audience and critical opinion is normal, but battling theatrical franchises have intensified this divide of late. Lowered expectations for audiences going into Venom could have made it easier to commend it simply for not being as bad as reported. Pleas of "IGNORE THE CRITICS!" became common review headlines from members of the public. In fact, it might as well double-up Venom's home release strapline.