The theatrical box office has been a concern for all major motion-picture studios since the global pandemic began in March 2020. In 2021, Marvel Studios is leading the way with Black Widow making $80 million and Shang-Chi: The Legend of The Ten Rings earning $75.3 million respectively at the box office in their opening weekends.
In the non-MCU dimension of past Marvel movies, 2018's Venom starring Tom Hardy was a surprise big hit, hauling in $856.1 million at the global box office.
Sony Pictures is one of the very few film studios that are keeping a traditional 90-day theater-only release. Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. are either releasing their films day-and-date in theaters and on a streaming service or cutting the theater lifetime in half to 45 days.
This all-in mentality with the big screen is already paying off for Sony with their latest installment.
Let There Be Carnage Dominates Box Office
Sony Pictures' Venom: Let There Be Carnage has grossed $90.1 million at the opening weekend domestic box office, Deadline reports. This is the best start to any movie at the box office since 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The sequel from Sony's Spider-Man Universe also overshot tracking predictions of $60 - 80 million. This hot start also brought in more than Venom's $80 million opening weekend in 2018.
This sinister sequel is still set to open at a later date in international markets where the original had much success. Specifically, China accounted for 31.4% of its earnings with $269 million ($56 million more than it made in the US and Canada).
Marvel Continues to Save the Box Office
The momentum within the box office is continuing to snowball after Shang-Chi's surprising September performance. Sony decided to move its release up from October 15 to October 1 after seeing how the Marvel Studios origin story performed.
Regardless of the opinions on the quality of this 97-minute CGI-fest, this is phenomenal news for the future of going to the movies. October is full of big-hitters like No Time To Die, Halloween Kills, and Dune. Each of those films represents the next three weekends at the movies, and each respective studio should have confidence that they will be a success.
Daniel Craig's final James Bond movie No Time to Die opens on October 8 and should bring in a huge haul for MGM studios. By mid-October, the theaters will finally be back to having multiple big-name franchises in theaters and, hopefully, a very healthy box office will coincide.
Looking beyond the horizon, what does this mean Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home? Full steam ahead.
Moviegoers are proving that if a studio markets a film as a theater-only debut, fans will come back to the theaters. James Gunn's The Suicide Squad was a critical success at the beginning of August, but will historically will be remembered as hardly having a presence at the global box office.
A film like Eternals could see an incredible box office output if Marvel ramps up the marketing, and the film begins to get more Oscar buzz in November with Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao at the helm.
Furthermore, Spider-Man: No Way Home has the first real potential to hit $1 billion in two calendar years. After shattering viewership records with its first trailer, No Way Home is promising to have people packing into theaters across the globe in December.
The return of villains like Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Electro will help, but if Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire show up, all bets are off for for this Spidey sequel's monetary potential.
To further the success of the domestic box office, go see Venom: Let The Be Carnage, now playing only in theaters.
