'Venom 2' Breaks Pandemic Box Office Records on Opening Weekend!

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“Dune,” an ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famously unadaptable sci-fi epic, opened to a lordly $5.1 million in Thursday previews. The film will unspool across 4,100 theaters in the U.S.

Naman Ramachandran James Bond film “No Time to Die” ruled the U.K. and Ireland box office for the third weekend in succession collecting £8.4 million ($11.5 million), according to numbers from Comscore.Daniel Craig’s swan song now has an impressive total of £68.5 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” gave a much-needed jolt to the South Korean box office with a $6.66 million opening weekend.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaSony’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” loomed large at the international box office this weekend, sinking its prodigious chompers into $62.3 million. That pushes the superhero adventure’s global haul to a muscular $283.7 million.

Refresh for latest…: Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage chomped on a big chunk of the international box office this weekend as it swallowed a $62.3M mouthful from 44 overseas markets. This follows from the symbiote’s record-breaking Russia and Latin America starts over the past few weeks. The Tom Hardy-starrer has now cumed $115.6M overseas and $283.7M global. While dates were switched up, the current pillow between Bond and Dune has done Venom well.

Refresh for latest…: MGM/Eon/Universal’s No Time To Die has sped the Aston Martin past the $300M global mark, coming off of an $89.54M sophomore frame at the international box office. That lifts James Bond 25’s overseas cume to $257.27M and, including domestic’s start this session, brings the worldwide total to $313.3M.

J. Kim Murphy administratorNorth American audiences are showing up for Daniel Craig’s final bow as James Bond.

James Bond fans witnessed the final outing for Daniel Craig's version of 007 in No Time To Die. The film has had a tough time, considering it was delayed from the beginning of 2020 until September 2021 because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage has feasibly crossed $100M in five days, joining Disney/Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings as the fastest titles to do so at the pandemic domestic box office. Both titles are on a theatrical window exceeding 45 days.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterFor cinema operators and Hollywood studios alike, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” has been the loudest indication yet that maybe, just maybe, the movie theater business can rebound from COVID-19 wreckage.The Sony Pictures supervillain sequel sunk its teeth into the box office with $90.1 million, a debut that’s impressively reminiscent of opening weekends prior to the global health crisis.

“No Time to Die” starring Daniel Craig reeled in $119 million from 54 international markets, including the UK, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong and Japan. That makes “No Time to Die” the first title from Hollywood to crack $100 million without opening in China, which recently became the word’s largest movie market overtaking the US.

This weekend showed some impressive signs of life returning to the box office and that blockbusters remain the big draws for audiences both domestic and international. According to various box office reports (Gitesh Pandya for one), “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” surpassed “Black Widow” ($80.3 million) and the original “Venom” ($80.2 million) earning an estimated $90.1 million at the domestic box office.

Not only that, but it also exceeds the $80 million opening of the first “Venom” in 2018, putting it on course to join “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” as the second post-shutdown film to reach $200 million domestic. Premium formats like IMAX were also a major factor behind the new pandemic era record, as Premium Large Formats accounted for 23% of the weekend gross.

Of course, the biggest market for the film is Bond’s homeland of the UK, where the film has set a pandemic era record with an estimated $34.8 million 4-day opening from 772 locations, the country’s widest release ever.

Refresh for latest…: A big and busy weekend at the international box office reaffirmed the power of theatrical as MGM/Eon/Universal’s No Time To Die bonded with audiences to the tune of $119.1M, coming in over on yesterday’s estimates.

Not only that, it also exceeds the $80 million opening of the first “Venom” in 2018, putting it on course to join “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” as the second post-shutdown film to reach $200 million domestic. Premium formats like IMAX were also a major factor behind the new pandemic era record as 64% of tickets sold were premium tickets, bumping up the film’s performance.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter“Venom: Let There be Carnage” roared to $90 million in its debut, setting a new pandemic record.

Even without grading the film on a COVID-19 curve, that’s a very solid result for the sequel considering the original “Venom” earned an $80 million opening on 2018. Reception for “Venom 2,” which leans harder into the dark but silly humor of the symbiote antihero and his hapless human host Eddie, has been stronger than for the original film with a 59% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86% audience score to go with a B+ CinemaScore.