The carnage is going to have to wait a little longer. With yet another surge in COVID-19 cases around the country, the box office is showing signs of struggle once again, and Sony is opting to delay its highly anticipated Venom sequel to try and get more people in the theaters. There have been reports swirling this week that Sony was considering pushing back Venom: Let There Be Carnage. They proved to be true on Thursday afternoon when the Marvel sequel was hit with another delay.
According to Variety, Venom: Let There Be Carnage will now be hitting theaters on October 15th, three weeks after its planned September 24th release date. This isn’t an especially significant delay, as fans will only have to wait a little less than a month for the new movie. But it feels like a big deal considering just how much Venom 2 has gone through in its journey to the screen.
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The sequel, starring Tom Hardy and directed by Andy Serkis, was supposed to be released last year. That obviously changed with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. A few release date delays took place before Venom 2 finally looked like it was locked in to September 24th. A recent surge of the Delta variant has hit theaters with setbacks, causing the theatrical landscape to look a little more dire than it did just a few weeks ago.
The first Venom made over $850 million when it was released back in 2018, setting the record for the best October opening in box office history (only to be beat by Joker one year later). Given the kind of success a sequel would be guaranteed under normal circumstances, it makes sense that Sony is concerned with releasing the film in the current climate.
Sony has been working closely with Netflix over the last year, sending several movies to the streamer in the wake of theaters being closed. To this point, those have been either animated films or smaller pictures. Film’s like Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Ghostbusters: Afterlife are going to have to be theatrical releases for the studio.
Are you disappointed to hear about Venom‘s latest delay? Let us know in the comments!
