Box Office: Venom Sequel Sets New Pandemic Record At North America Box Office
Los Angeles, October 3 - Marvel comic book movies are proving why they are the king of the box office. After "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings", and "Black Widow", two highest-grossing movies at the North America box office during the pandemic respectively, another comic book movie, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" has gone nuts at the box office, shattering domestic box office record of the pandemic era. ## The Tom Hardy starrer, after taking an opening of $37.3 million including $11.6 million Thursday previews, concluded the 3-day opening weekend with $90.1 million, setting a new pandemic record at the North America box office. The movie tops "Black Widow's $80.4 million 3-day weekend debut. Sony had projected just $40 million in the first three days, which is far behind from actual collection.## The Venom sequel also topped its predecessor, 2018's "Venom", which grossed $80.3 million in the first three days, in the era of no covid-19 pandemic. "Venom" had grossed $855 million worldwide including $213 million in North America, despite the bad reviews. Venom sequel doesn't have a release date yet in China, where 2018's film had made $270 million. ## "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" opened massive in its first overseas market Russia with an estimated $14 million in the opening weekend, which is Sony's biggest opening of all time in that market, and the best of any film during the pandemic. An exclusive theatrical release of the film is benefitting its overall box office collection. ## "We are also pleased that patience and theatrical exclusivity have been rewarded with record results", Sony's chairman Tom Rothman said in a statement to the press. "With apologies to Mr. Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated".## In August, Sony pushed Venom 2 from September 24 to October 15 amid uncertainty over theatergoing and the delta variant. But when Shang-Chi (the only film to gross $200M+ during the pandemic at the domestic box office) did so well, Sony Pictures rescheduled Venom 2 to October 1 in the US and that move paid off in a big way. ## Stay tuned...
