Venom: Let There Be Carnage has set a new pandemic record at the domestic box office after pulling in $90.1 million during its opening weekend.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel to Venom surpassed its predecessor, whose Oct. 2018 opening weekend only pulled in and rested at $80.3 million. This year's film returns fans to the life of Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), host to a symbiote that makes him the lethal protector of San Francisco, but introduces a new murderous foe to battle as well, Cletus Kasady A.K.A. Carnage (Woody Harrelson). The latest film inspired by Spider-Man from Marvel Comics and set in Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC) also broke records set by other Marvel-related projects, even hitting pre-pandemic monetary levels.
The previous record for 2021's best three-day box office opening weekend was held by Marvel Studios' Black Widow, which earned $81 million domestically. The difference between Venom: Let There Be Carnage and the superhero spy flick is that while Venom released exclusively in theaters, Black Widow had a dual-release shared between theaters and Disney's streaming platform, Disney+. During its opening weekend, the platform took in $60 million alone, nearly a quarter of the film's global earnings for the weekend, though the dual release would later lead to a lawsuit filed by the film's lead actress, Scarlett Johansson, over an alleged breach of her contract.
The lethal protector also came very close to rivaling the competition's clown prince of crime. Warner Bros.' Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix and based on the Batman foe from DC Comics, opened in Oct. 2019 and took home $92.6 million during its opening weekend. The film would later go on to earn nearly $1.1 billion globally, making it the highest-grossing R-rated film in the world. While Venom is rated PG-13, the film's box office opening indicates that movie earnings are rising back to pre-pandemic levels, the film being one of the first to meet these checkpoints.
The film has been praised by film stars, comic book creators and many others. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's Spider-Man and Peter Parker actor, Tom Holland, encouraged fans to go see the SPUMC film in theaters. Meanwhile, Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, who worked on Venom-centric Marvel titles such as Venom, Absolute Carnage and King in Black, were ecstatic to see themselves thanked in the film's end credits sequence. Director Andy Serkis spoke with CBR about his interest in completing a Venom trilogy, the numbers and reactions looking positive for a third film to be greenlit in the future.
Directed by Serkis and starring Hardy and Harrelson, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now available exclusively in theaters.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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