After being projected to debut to a nice $60M domestic box office, Venom: Let There Be Carnage absolutely blew the doors off that number with a $90M open, exceeding projections by 50%. The sequel to the 2018 film started off with a great take at Thursday night’s previews and didn’t slow down one bit and knocked Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings out of the top spot after 4 strong weeks.
As noted above, Let There Be Carnage outdid its predecessor by $10M and did so in the midst of a pandemic. Speaking of the pandemic, the $90M also marks the highest grossing opening weekend of a film during the ongoing health crisis.
The first film was a hit with fans, less so with critics, so it’s no surprise to see audiences out in droves to see it, especially with it getting higher marks than its predecessor by many of those same talking heads. The film has also generated substantial buzz around its mid-credit scene which appears to bring Tom Hardy’s Venom to the MCU and face-to-face (kind of) with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. Given the huge success the film had, it’s likely the studio won’t wait long to greenlight a third film and make good on the promise of that scene.
