Yes and No.
It’s not just Tom Hardy who counts. Although he is an integral part of the movie’s success, he isn’t the most essential part of the movie. There are a lot of factors that come into play when releasing a movie.
The first question that comes to mind is that “Is Venom a bankable enough character?”. The answer to that question is Yes. Venom is a universally loved villain, especially to all comic fans. A complicated villain/anti-hero, he occupies a middle-ground between his two arch-enemies Spidey and Carnage. The Symbiote storyline and the character of Eddie Brock deserve some justice after the disappointment called Spiderman 3.
Coming to the cast, Tom Hardy is an interesting choice. He is an outstanding actor and really dedicates himself to his performances. The problem is not him in the role. He would be perfect.
Among common moviegoers, critics and Nolan fans he is very well received. Attracting this audience is easy for the Venom movie although this niche includes people who dislike superhero flicks. The biggest flaw of casting Tom Hardy as the titular choice is that Tom has almost always played supporting and negative roles. The only famous movies where Tom plays the lead are Warrior and Mad Max: Fury Road. Warrior was a box office bomb and Fury Road was controlled more by his co-star Charlize Theron.
Tom Hardy has been bankable mostly in the supporting roles. Statistically speaking he has been a leading man 12 times and these movies have earned a gross total of 1.15 billion dollars at the box office. Although impressive, the box office income in movies which involved him as a supporting character(4 movies) is exactly double of that figure(Source: The-Numbers.com).
The final problem Tom Hardy faces is that he isn’t exactly a bankable lead star at the worldwide box office. The saving grace for Tom Hardy is that Venom is an anti-hero so casting an actor who plays negative roles is a good move. In the end, I believe it’s the script that will count and not the actor. We’ve all seen movies with good actors bomb before and movies with practically no one recognizable becoming hits.