The box office is officially back, everyone.
After crowning a new film atop the yearly domestic charts last weekend, we now have the new highest grossing film for a three-day weekend this year.
“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” lit up the charts this past weekend, grossing $90.1 million from Friday to Sunday. This put it $10 million north of the three-day total of “Black Widow,” making it the largest three-day opening for a film in 2021. Now there are some addendums to that moniker, namely that “Black Widow” was released via Premier Access on Disney+ which took away some gross from its respective weekend. Nonetheless, based on the numbers that the box-office provides, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is the new leader in that category. With a $90.1 million domestic opening and a reported budget of $110 million, the film is in a fantastic position to profit.
The only problem plaguing “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is the intense competition it’s facing these next few weeks. Next week comes the release of the final Daniel Craig-helmed James Bond film “No Time to Die,” which is garnering some incredible grosses internationally. The following week brings “Halloween Kills” and “The Last Duel,” and the week after that comes the release of “Dune.” “Venom” is entering a gauntlet of competition these next few weeks, which doesn’t bode well for its legs at the box office. For that reason, I think the film will only reach about $215 million domestically.
In second place this weekend is the animated film “The Addams Family 2,” which grossed $18 million. This was well above my expectations for the movie, as I thought its dual theatrical and video-on-demand release strategy would hurt its gross for the weekend. I was quite wrong, as the film drew a large audience in theaters. If it holds like other animated family releases this year, such as “Raya and the Last Dragon” and “Tom and Jerry,” we could see an unexpectedly high gross for this spooky selection.
Coming in third place is the highest grossing film of the year domestically, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” With a $6 million gross, the film has cleared $200 million and sets its eyes to clear $210 million next weekend. With a drop of 53.7%, fellow superhero film “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” clearly pulled away some of its audience. Nonetheless, I expect it to stay on the charts next weekend even with the arrival of 007.
In fourth and fifth place are “The Many Saints of Newark” and “Dear Evan Hansen” with $5 million and just below $2.5 million respectively. This is quite a disappointing result for both these films. “The Many Saints of Newark” was hurt by its simultaneous HBO Max release, which has significantly dampened box-office grosses for adult-oriented films this year. The 67.1% second weekend drop of “Dear Evan Hansen” is absolutely abysmal for a musical film, who usually boast strong weekend-to-weekend holds. These films’ chances at box office success are all for naught.
Next weekend comes the wide release of the finale of Craig’s James Bond saga with “No Time to Die” hitting theaters. The film has already been released internationally, where it has done some incredible business. Being the last film of a beloved franchise, I expect this movie to do extremely well this coming weekend. I think the record “Venom” set this weekend will be broken, and “No Time To Die” will gross close to $100 million domestically this coming weekend.
However, that is just speculation. There is no time to die at the box office, and Bond certainly doesn’t want to meet his demise next weekend.
