Venom: Let There Be Carnage posted the highest domestic opening of the pandemic to date with a weekend take of $90 million while James Bond and No Time To Die got started overseas with a robust $119 million launch. Do you know who is thrilled about these insanely huge openings? Movie theater owners. With the box office starting to look like it did pre-pandemic, major theater chains are singling out these films in particular for bringing some business back to their establishments.
AMC Entertainment, which is the largest theater chain in the world, announced that they posted a new post-reopening record for weekend attendance as well as new post-opening records for ticket admission revenues and concessions thanks to James Bond and Venom, per “Deadline.”
According to AMC, between Thursday, September 30, and Sunday, October 3, 2.4 million+ people watched movies at U.S. AMC locations while 1.4 million explored AMC movies overseas which represents a total of 3.9 million worldwide, a new post-reopening attendance record for the popular chain.
Not to be left out is Cinemark. The No. 3 theater chain in the world had its highest opening weekend during the pandemic era and it also saw its strongest tickets sales for its PLF XS auditoriums. This represents their biggest October weekend overall, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage being their biggest opener for the month.
Breaking down the figures from the major theater chains, 25% of the Venom sequel’s weekend gross was made at AMC, 17.7% came from Cinemark while Regal theaters accounted for 17%. Overseas, No Time To Die had the highest Saturday ever for a Bond film in the U.K. for AMC. No Time To Die will try to continue AMC’s good fortune when it opens in the U.S. this Friday while Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens in Europe the week of October 15.
The power of Imax screens was also evident over the weekend. They saw their biggest global box office weekend since December 2019 and they also blew through their best October weekend record of $30 million from No Time To Die, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and a trio of local Chinese releases. Imax took in $6.8 million from 284 screens in 50 markets off of No Time To Die. Given the fact that the film was shot with the large format exhibitor’s cameras, it should come as no surprise that the film scored several Imax records including Best Opening Weekend results for a Bond film in 24 countries. Venom: Let There Carnage grossed $9.6 million worldwide on Imax screens before expanding further next week and $8.6 million of that came from 402 screens in the U.S. This represents the best domestic opening Imax weekend during the pandemic era as well as the third-best October opening ever.
I have to say, it’s great to see the box office come bouncing back. What are YOUR thoughts on the box office performance of No Time To Die and Venom: Let There Be Carnage?