Box Office: Venom: Let There Be Carnage Takes Top Spot, Leaves Shang-Chi In The Dust

John F. Trent |

Oct 4, 2021

Sony Pictures’ Venom: Let There Be Carnage took top spot at the domestic box office blowing away all competition.

The film had an opening domestic weekend of $90.1 million beating out its closest competitor The Addams Family 2, which only grossed $18 million. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was in a distant third bringing in $6 million.

The rest of the top five included Warner Bros. The Many Saints of Newark, which brought in $5 million, and Dear Evan Hansen, which clawed in $2.4 million.

The total overall domestic gross at the box office was $127.7 million a huge surge from last weekend’s $37.7 million. It’s the largest grossing domestic weekend of the year. It’s the highest grossing weekend since February 14, 2020, where domestic box office grosses totaled $156 million with Sonic the Hedgehog topping the charts with a $58 million gross.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage also brought in another $13.8 million at the international box office for a global opening of $103.9 million.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s opening weekend makes it the highest grossing opening domestic weekend of 2021 beating Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and F9: The Fast Saga.

Black Widow opened to $80.3 million, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had a $75.3 million opening and F9: The Fast Saga had a $70 million opening.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage also opened in fewer theaters than Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Venom only opened in 4,225 theaters. Black Widow opened in 4,275 and Shang-Chi opened in 4,300. F9 opened in 4,203. Disney’s Jungle Cruise opened in the most theaters with 4,310.

What might be even more impressive about Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s opening weekend is that it beat the first film’s opening weekend. The first film grossed $80.2 million back in October 2018.

The film still does have a long ways to go if it hopes to beat out the first Venom’s total domestic box office take. That film earned $213.5 million total.

Variety reports that Venom: Let There Be Carnage had a production budget of $110 million meaning the film will need to earn around $275 million globally in order to begin to break even. Given the film earned back its production budget in its opening weekend, it’s likely it could hit that mark at the end of its theatrical run.

However, Venom: Let There Be Carnage will have stiff competition next weekend when the new James Bond film, No Time To Die, releases in the United States.

No Time To Die opened in the United Kingdom (UK) and at the international box office this weekend with The Guardian reporting it made $119 million. They further report the film grossed approximately $30 million in just the UK and Ireland.

Back to Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the film smashed Box Office Pro’s long-range predictions. They predicted at the beginning of September the film would have a $65 million domestic opening on the high end. Furthermore they claimed the film would only have a $140 million total domestic run on the high end and $100 million on the low end.

Not only did Venom: Let There Be Carnage blow out Box Office Pro’s predictions, but it destroyed The-Numbers’ predictions as well. The-Numbers predicted the film would earn $55.9 million.

The-Numbers also notes it beat Sony’s own internal predictions, which were between $50 and $60 million after bringing in a massive $11.6 million at preview screenings on Thursday.

While Shang-Chi came in third for the weekend, it’s total domestic grosses are now at $206.1 million. It is currently the top domestic grossing film of 2021 right now and the first to break the $200 million mark. It has grossed a total of $386.9 million meaning it very likely is now profitable as based on the film’s estimated $150 million production budget it only needed to hit $375 million to break even.

The film is still a poor performer in comparison to other Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films. Based on unadjusted domestic grosses the film is still the sixth worst grossing MCU film only beating Black Widow, Thor, Ant-Man, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The Incredible Hulk.

However, adjusting for inflation the film only beats out The Incredible Hulk and Black Widow.

Shang-Chi should beat out Thor: The Dark World in unadjusted gross as that film’s total domestic gross back in 2013 was $206.3 million.

It also might overtake Ant-Man in adjusted gross as the movie only made $180.2 million back in 2015. Adjusted for inflation that’s $207.9 million.

Still, the box office gross is nowhere near more recent MCU films like Spider-Man: Far From Home, Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War, and Black Panther. It’s unlikely the film will even beat Ant-Man and the Wasp, which grossed $216.6 million.