Venom: Let There Be Carnage has beat Black Widow's opening weekend box office record. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the sequel to 2018's Venom, and has Tom Hardy returning to the role Eddie Brock/Venom, a symbiote alien that attaches itself to the human journalist. Hardy is joined by Woody Harrelson as the fan-favorite villain Cletus Kasady/Carnage with Naomie Harris taking the role of another symbiote character, Shriek.
Black Widow was the first MCU film to be released post-pandemic, which came with a day-and-date release in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. The film did well at the box office, but under-performed in relation to previous Marvel films, as well as adding the pressure of a lawsuit with star Scarlett Johansson, who recently settled with Disney. By contrast, the latest MCU film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, performed exceptionally at the box office and did so without a Premier Access debut. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now on it's way to cross $400 million globally, having already passed Black Widow domestically.
Now comes word (via Deadline) that Venom: Let There Be Carnage has bested Black Widow's pandemic opening weekend record, taking in $90.1 million. Black Widow's record was $80.8 million, a new record in post-pandemic times, but Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now at the top. The first Venom film over-performed at the box office as well, debuting at $80.2 million and making $856 million worldwide by the end of its run, all but guaranteeing a sequel. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now also the second-best ever opening for the month of October, sitting just behind WB's Joker, which sits at $96.2 million.
Directed by Andy Serkis, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is another joint Sony/Marvel film, which leaves the door open for the brands to cross pollinate if they so desire, while also allowing Sony to develop its own "Spider-Verse" of films. Upcoming films in that universe that may or may not be jointly in the MCU include December's Spider-Man: No Way Home, a sequel to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, Morbius, and Kraven The Hunter, with many more in development. The performance of Venom: Let There Be Carnage this weekend will no doubt lead to a third film in the series and much more from Spider-Man adjacent films over at Sony.
For those that know, the popularity of not only Venom, but the main villain Carnage, this is not that big of a surprise. Carnage has been a fan-favorite character on the pages of comics for decades and fans have been chomping at the bit to see him realized on the big screen. Like Marvel's Deadpool, the Venom characters tap into a fanbase that goes beyond the comics, generating a visual presence and lore that can't be ignored, as well as an anti-hero stance that makes them far more compelling than the standard heroes that are the norm for these films. If anything, Venom: Let There Be Carnage's success shows that audiences are game for more than the standard "heroes journey" stories and open to more complex (or even silly) comic-book films that can exist on both planes.
Source: Deadline
