According to box office projections, Sony Pictures’ Venom: Let There Be Carnage is about to cross a major movie milestone. This sequel to 2018’s Venom is the second film since March of 2020 to earn $200 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada. The only other film to reach this milestone since March of 2020 was Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which will have earned around $224.4 million by the end of this weekend.
The American and worldwide film industry has had its share of ups and downs since March of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic saw theaters around the globe shut down for months on end. In response, several studios began releasing movies through streaming platforms like Disney+, Peacock, and more. For a while, this was the only way for film fans to see new movies. Eventually, theaters attempted to reopen their doors around August and September of 2020. In doing so, a few new movies were finally released in theaters like Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which has its release delayed three times. However, with rising COVID-19 case numbers last fall, the doors of most theaters did not stay open long.
Later, as more people around the world began to receive COVID-19 vaccinations earlier this year, theaters were finally able to open their doors. This allowed movies like Godzilla vs. Kong, Black Widow, and F9 to be shown on the silver screen as filmmakers intended. However, audiences simply were not coming to theaters like they had before the pandemic. In fact, they still are not.
However, recent theatrical releases for movies like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Marvel Studios’ latest, Eternals, suggest this could be changing. The more money movies earn at the box office, the more people are going to theaters to see them. Venom: Let There Be Carnage crossing this major movie milestone of earning more than $200 million at the box office is a good sign that the world, including the U.S., is finally going back to normal — or whatever life was before March of 2020.
For more updates on movies like Venom: Let There Be Carnage and the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home, check back in with us at The Nerd Stash!
