Marvel sequel ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ has blown away expectations to debut with $90.1 million in ticket sales, making it easily the best opening of the pandemic.
‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ had been forecast to open with closer to half that total. But the film, which is playing exclusively in theaters, exceeded even the debut of the 2018 original. ‘Venom,’ the ‘Spider-Man’ offshoot that introduced Tom Hardy’s parasitic alien symbiote, launched with $80.3 million. Only 2019′s ‘Joker’ ($96.2 million) has ever opened bigger in October.
The result — along with robust international sales for the James Bond film No Time to Die — constituted the best news for movie theaters in more than 18 months. ‘With apologies to Mr. Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated,’ Tom Rothman, chairman, and chief executive of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, said in a statement.
Both ‘Let There Be Carnage’ and ‘No Time to Die’ had originally been set to open last year. Believing the best box-office return would happen with an exclusive release in theaters, both studios (neither of which has a major streaming platform) held out for better moviegoing conditions. Over the weekend, their wait was rewarded.
Before ‘Let There Be Carnage,’ the top pandemic openings had been Walt Disney’s ‘Black Widow’ ($80 million), ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ ($75 million), and Universal Pictures’ ‘Fast and Furious’ sequel ‘F9’ ($70 million).
