Venom: Let There Be Carnage set a pandemic record with its $90.1 million domestic box office debut, surpassing Black Widow's $80 million performance earlier this year.
As reported by Variety, Venom: Let There Be Carnage also opened in Russia with $13 million in ticket sales and will premiere in Latin America next week before its major international rollout.
“We are also pleased that patience and theatrical exclusivity have been rewarded with record results,” Sony’s chairman Tom Rothman said. “With apologies to Mr. Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated.”
While it broke the record held by Black Widow, it's important to remember that Black Widow was also released on Disney+ Premier Access on the same day it arrived in theaters and earned another $60 million on Disney's streaming platform. Venom's sequel, on the other hand, is only available in theaters.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage also was able to secure a bigger opening than the original film from 2018, which opened to $80 million pre-pandemic. Venom went on to gross $213 million in North America and $856 million globally.
Behind Venom, The Addams Family 2 took second place at the domestic box office with ticket sales equaling $18 million and Shang-Chi's four-week streak at #1 came to an end with it placing third with $6 million.
Shang-Chi also passed $200 million at the domestic box office, making it the first film to do so in the pandemic with its current total of $206 million. Globally, the latest MCU film has generated $386 million.
The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark took fourth place with $5 million and Dear Evan Hansen rounded out the top 5 with $2.4 million. The Many Saints of Newark, which is also available to all HBO Max subscribers, cost $50 million to produce.
For more on Venom: Let There Be Carnage, check out our review of the film, the biggest WTF questions we have after watching it, and our explainer of the end credits scene and the movie's ending.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.