By Rebecca Rubin

LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com – The debut of “Venom: There Be Carnage” soared to $90.1million. This is a record for pandemics. This is a remarkable result that gives life to struggling theaters, and once again proves Marvel’s power at the box office.

From the darker “Venom,” comes the follow-up. Sony (NYSE:) Pictures and is distinct from Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. It recently released “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, and “Black Widow,” which were the highest-grossing domestic films of the year. If “Venom, Let There Be Carnage”, its three-day debut in cinemas is any indicator, the movie will likely be one of 2021’s most successful. This film will only be available in theaters, not on-demand. That should increase ticket sales.

Sony chairman Tom Rothman released a statement to the press, saying that “we are also pleased with patience and theatrical exclusivity” had been rewarded in record numbers. With apologies for Mr. Twain: Movies are dying.

Tom Hardy played the role of the evil supervillain, and the film surpassed the $180 million threshold set by Black Widow in July. Additional $60 million was earned on Disney Plus, which made it available for purchase that same day as the theatrical opening.

David A. says that “young adults are more attracted to horror and action movies than their older family members.” Gross runs Franchise Entertainment Research’s movie consulting company. He says, “For these movies it’s clearly an advantage to play exclusively on the big-screen.”

The inaugural tickets sales of “Venom, Let There be Carnage”, made even more remarkable by the fact that it had an even bigger opening weekend than 2018’s “Venom”. Hardy’s first comic book story opened at $80 million. That was years before the catastrophic global health crisis. The original was a huge success, despite poor reviews. It grossed $213M in North America and $856M globally. The 2018 Chinese movie “Venom”, which grossed $269 million, was a huge success.

China is the key market for its success, and China has yet to release the sequel. Although it’s expected that the sequel will open in China, the country denies “Black Widow”, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and many other Hollywood films.

Not only was “Venom, Let There be Carnage,” a fresh movie that brought some new life to the box office. MGM’s animated comedy “The Addams Family 2,” which was available in 4,207 theaters, and also on rent-on-demand, brought in $18 million.

The Warner Bros. prequel “The Sopranos” movie, “The Many Saints of Newark,” was also a failure. The film generated a paltry $5M from its initial release. As with the rest of the 2021 slate from Warner Bros., it was simultaneously released on HBO Max without any additional cost.

In domestic, the film “Shang-Chi,” which made $6 million on its fifth week of release, increased its domestic total to $206 millions. This is the only pandemic-era film to have a gross of more than $200m in Canada and the U.S. Globally, the superhero movie has earned $386 million. This is less than what a Marvel film would earn in non-COVID time but still ranks amongst the top grossers at a time where attendance hasn’t reached pre-pandemic levels.