by Conan Simmons – October 4, 2021 – 5:34 am
To hell with superhero fatigue, audiences are showing up to theaters with a superhero thirst!
‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’, the sequel to the 2018 hit ‘Venom’ both starring Tom Hardy, debuted with a take of $90.1 million over three days making the fantasy flick the biggest debut of the year. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ debuted over a four day holiday weekend to the tune of $94 million while making only $75 million over three days. This clearly marks the return to cinemas everyone has been waiting for and sets up next weekends James Bond thriller, ‘No Time to Die’, to earn an expected $100 million plus. The 007 film has already made $119 million overseas in the last few days.
Like its predecessor ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ has been receiving negative reviews from critics while audiences enjoy the carefree entertainment the film provides. Woody Harrelson plays the titular villain, Carnage, after appearing in the post credits sequence of the first film. The sequel also sets up Venom et al to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which isn’t too surprising after seeing Michael Keaton reprising his Spider-Man villain in the trailer for the still delayed ‘Morbius’, due out next year. Of course, it would be foolhardy of Sony and Marvel/Disney to not have Tom Hardy’s Venom face off against Tom Holland’s Spider-Man after this.
Also debuting over the weekend is the animated sequel ‘The Addams Family 2’ which took second place with $18 million. The other debut was ‘The Many Saints of Newark’, a prequel movie to the television series ‘The Sopranos’. ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ flops into the Weekend Box Office Top 5 in fourth place with $5 million on the take. Releasing the film day-and-date on HBO Max was the biggest problem for the movie as it only reminds audiences that it’s a movie based on a tv show that originally aired on HBO, so why not just watch it there? The studio executives of HBO Max/Warner Bros. are denying that day-and-date cannibalizes box office, unfortunately for them the numbers don’t lie and ON GENRE is calling “bullshit” on that claim.
Rounding out the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ which becomes one of the highest grossing films of the year as it surpasses $200 million in the U.S. and the musical ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ in what is most likely its last weekend on the list.
ON GENRE had predicted for ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ to make around $70 million in its debut and we couldn’t be happier to be wrong as the film made $90.1 million. So, congratulations to whomever picked that on our poll over on Twitter (you can follow ON GENRE on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr). For next weekend we are predicting ‘No Time to Die’ will premiere at number one with over $100 million.
Better follow us here or there to find out how right or wrong we are!
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (October 1-3, 2021)
- ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ – $90.1 million – fantasy (debut)
- ‘The Addams Family 2’ – $18 million – animated (debut)
- ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ – $6 million – fantasy (drop $7 million, 54% decline)
- ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ – $5 million – crime film (debut)
- ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ – $2.5 million – musical (drop $4.9 million, 66% decline)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is $121.6 million. This is an increase of 318% for a gain of $92.5 million over last weekends total of $29.1 million.