Credit – Sony
Sony has gotten courageous and moved the release of ‘Venom: Let There be Carnage up to October 1st. Just a couple of weeks ago, Sony was contemplating delaying the release until January 22, 2022 because of fears of what the new variants might do to a weary Pandemic audience. Well…the Pandemic is over as a scapegoat. With the “success” of ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ earning over $90 million at the box over the four day Labor Day weekend, it would seem that fears of the pandemic have abated. Audiences are apparently going to the movies. It would also mean that Hollywood can’t flip flop any more and use the Pandemic and its new Covid variants as scapegoats for a movies demise.
The Next Few Weeks Will be a Good Barometer for Marvels Box Office Standing
The original ‘Venom’ opened in 2018 with a $80.2 million weekend. If ‘Venom: Let There be Carnage’ proves to be just as fun as the original ‘Venom’ then ‘Venom: Let There be Carnage’ should have some legs to it and have a great first opening weekend. Will it best “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten rings’? It might, but it is up against ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ which releases on the same day followed by the latest James Bond sequel, ‘No Time to Die’ on September 8th. ”The Many Saints of Newark’ has a very loyal fanbase that might take some box office away from “Venom: Let There be Carnage’ but with audiences proving they are not afraid to visit a movie theater, that might be inconsequential. The next few weeks will be a good test as to where the audiences are when it comes to going to the movies. ‘Shang-Chi’ doesn’t really have any competition until ‘Venom’ releases on October 1st, so we will get a good gauge as to whether Marvel’s new character has typical Marvel longevity or not. If ‘Shang-Chi’ fades away rather quickly, Kevin Feige might have a content problem that Marvel and Disney can’t avoid. With ‘The Eternal’ coming out November 5th, Disney can’t use the excuse of the Pandemic anymore and should focus on why audiences don’t want to see their movies.
Sony Has a Winning Formula in the Weeks Ahead
‘Venom: Let There be Carnage’, in my opinion, will be a good gauge for what to expect with typical box office going forward. This is an action/semi-superhero flick that is owned by Sony and is not currently involved in the MCU. As a standalone entry into that type of genre, with an established character that did almost a billion dollars back in 2018, Sony just might prove how you can make a fun movie without all the woke weaved in. In addition to that, Sony also has ‘Spider-man: No Way Home’ releasing on December 17th and ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ releasing on November 19th. It should be a great year for Sony who has tended to stay away from overtly interjecting identity politics into their movies as compared to Marvel and Disney who are obsessed with it and think it’s a winning formula at the box office. We will see in the weeks ahead, because there’s so long ‘Shang-Chi’ can ride the coattails of its Labor Day weekend box office success. I had no interest in seeing ‘Shang-Chi’ in the theaters solely because of the sour taste Marvel has left with their disregard for the established material vs an SJW agenda that has been at the forefront of all their content in the last year. ‘Venom: Let There be Carnage’, however, I can’t wait to see and will be at the theater for its release.
