The USO of North Carolina arranged for military members to get tickets to the advanced screening.
A crowd waited outside the theater to catch a glimpse of Hardy who plays an investigative TV journalist whose body is invaded by an alien organism. Hardy's character, Eddie Brock, loses his lawyer fiancée played by Michelle Williams when he steals a tip from her work email for a story.
"Venom" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America because of intense sci-fi violence and language.
The movie opens nationwide this weekend.