‘Venom 2’ Devours Box Office With $70 Million-Plus Launch

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.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaUniversal and Blumhouse’s “Halloween Kills” topped the weekend box office with a $50.4 million debut. That’s a bloody good showing considering that the film is being release simultaneously in theaters and on-demand via Peacock, NBCUniversal’s in-house Netflix challenger.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and Media“Halloween Kills” slashed its way to $4.9 million in Thursday previews.The Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions horror flick is the latest blood-soaked installment in the long-running “Halloween” franchise, a series that is firmly in its fifth decade. And despite being comfortably middle-aged, “Halloween Kills” is projected to generate $35 million to $40 million in its first three days of release.

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.

Combined with the second weekend of Sony’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which is estimated at $31 million, overall grosses for the domestic box office is set to stay above $100 million for the second straight weekend, a welcome result for theaters looking for business to consistently reach pre-pandemic levels. Current industry estimates project a $115 million overall weekend, just 11% down from last weekend’s annual high of $129 million.

Combined with the second weekend of Sony’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which is estimated at $32 million, overall grosses for the domestic box office is set to stay above $100 million for the second straight weekend, a welcome result for theaters looking for business to consistently reach pre-pandemic levels. Current industry estimates project a $115 million overall weekend, just 11% down from last weekend’s annual high of $129 million.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAudiences are showing up in force to send Daniel Craig off in style.MGM’s “No Time to Die,” which marks the actor’s last stint as James Bond, opened to $6.3 million in Thursday previews, the best for a Bond film.

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.

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.

China’s ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ was the highest grossing film anywhere in the world over the past weekend, with a $203 million haul.That score was fractionally lower than the combined total earned by “No Time to Die” ($119 million in international markets) and by “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ($90.2 million in North America).The film was the far away winner in mainland China, where it was released on Thursday, a day ahead of the National Day holiday.

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.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a hit!

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.