Let there be profits!
Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the briskly-paced sequel to the high performing 2018 Tom Hardy picture Venom, did outstanding business on opening weekend, securing over $90 million at the domestic box office, according to the Hollywood Reporter. It marks a new record for COVID-era receipts on a three-day weekend; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings scored $94.7 million on its opening weekend, but that was the four day Labor Day bracket. While both properties have their roots in Marvel comic books, Venom is a Sony release, while Shang-Chi is Disney. (It’s complicated.)
The new Andy Serkis-directed sequel fared better with critics than Ruben Fleischer’s original entry in the series (59 percent versus 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 47 versus 35 percent on Metacritic). But, as in 2018, it appears there is something about an alien symbiote that is impervious to bad reviews. (Writing for the New York Times, Amy Nicholson called the Venom sequel “the mold in the Avengers’ shower”—which was one of the more positive takes!) The first Venom ultimately caught $856 million worldwide in its sticky goo, according to Box Office Mojo. Considering the success of Let There Be Carnage thus far, there’s no reason to think there won’t be an eventual part three.
Over at Warner Bros., the studio that committed to releasing its entire 2021 slate on HBO Max simultaneously with theaters, it was a pretty rough weekend. The release of The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel to the ever-popular series The Sopranos, foundered with a $5 million take from 3,181 venues, according to Variety. It also netted a pretty bleak C+ from Cinemascore, which polls exiting audience members. (Insert a Paulie Walnuts-style “Oh!” here.)
In limited release, the French language kinda-horror/kinda-touching-family drama/very-hard-to-summarize Palme D’Or winner Titane had a strong weekend with $515,747. This may not sound like too much, but, as a distributor rep for the film was eager to say in an email, it does mark the largest opening for a French movie in the United States since High Tension in 2003.
This sets the table for next week’s stateside release of No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond picture—or 27th, if you include the non-EON productions, which, well, listen, we’re not going to tell you how to live your life, but our lines are open if you need to talk.
At the international box office, the final Daniel Craig entry in the 007 saga scored $119 million from 54 markets, according to Variety. It is, understandably, a particularly big winner in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it earned $25.6 million in its first three days. It’s also created a cottage industry for culture journalists in Old Blighty: We can currently find no fewer than 16 articles in the Guardian alone about the flick published in the last week.
You will need a speedy Aston Martin to avoid spoilers as we get closer to release.
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