'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' Becomes Biggest Opening Of Pandemic Era

"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" set a new pandemic record in its debut.

The film, which stars Tom Hardy as the ravenous alien symbiote, opened to $90.1 million at the North American box office this weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This marked the biggest three-day launch of the pandemic era and the biggest weekend overall since the COVID-19 outbreak began.

"Venom: Let There Be Carnage," which is Sony's follow-up to the hit 2018 supervillain film, beat previous record-holder "Black Widow," which raked in $80 million during its July debut, CNBC reported.

Hardy's film is playing only in cinemas, unlike Scarlett Johansson's standalone superhero flick, which premiered in theaters and on Disney Plus. "Black Widow" made an additional $60 million in its inaugural weekend on the streaming service, Variety noted.

The sequel also outpaced the first "Venom" movie, which tallied $80.3 million over the course of its opening weekend.

"Venom 2" is also the second-highest October opening in cinematic history, just behind "Joker," which opened to $96.2 million in 2019, according to data from Comscore.

"We are... pleased that patience and theatrical exclusivity have been rewarded with record results," said Tom Rothman, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sunday in a statement to the press. "With apologies to Mr. Twain: The death of movies has been greatly exaggerated."

"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" opened in Russia with $13.8 million. The movie will be released in Latin America next week before it hits most major international markets.

"It reaffirms the importance of the theatrical widow," said Sony's president of domestic distribution Adrian Smith.

Sanford Panitch, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, said, "We knew we had a really big movie and an excited fanbase. The marketplace comes out for the right movie."

Movie theater operators also praised the "Venom" sequel's performance. According to Cinemark, the film was its highest opening weekend and helped generate the largest-ever October box office weekend for the company.

"This is another strong example that people want and need to get out of their homes for an immersive entertainment experience," said Mark Zoradi, CEO of Cinemark, in a statement obtained by CNBC.

According to David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, superhero, action and horror movies benefit from exclusive theater release because "young adult audiences are less deterred by current pandemic conditions than older and family moviegoers."

After the "Venom" sequel and "Black Widow," this year's biggest opening weekends were "Shang-Chi" ($75 million) and the "Fast and Furious" sequel "F9" ($70 million), according to Variety.