WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: No Time to Die Debuts w/ $56M Domestic, Takes in Additional $89.5M Overseas; Venom: Let There Be Carnage Drops 64% to $32M in Sophomore Frame

Following the longest-ever gap between Bond installments during the Daniel Craig era of the franchise – the result of four release-date delays amid the pandemic – No Time to Die, the actor’s final turn as 007, debuted in theaters this weekend saddled with lofty expectations.

First, the good news. While it didn’t come anywhere close to breaking Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s pandemic-record $90.03M debut last weekend (as some analysts had predicted it might), No Time to Die had a strong opening, debuting to an estimated $56M from 4,407 locations (36% of the film’s weekend gross was derived from IMAX and PLF screens). That’s the fifth-largest bow of the pandemic to date after Let There Be Carnage, Black Widow ($80.37M), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($75.39M) and F9 ($70.04M), as well as the fourth-highest debut of any Bond movie after Skyfall ($88.4M), Spectre ($70.4M) and Quantum of Solace ($67.53M).

On the downside, No Time to Die’s performance can’t help but feel like something of a letdown after tracking skyrocketed in the days leading up to release, with some indications pointing to a debut north of $100M. That was admittedly a major longshot, though Let There Be Carnage’s supersized opening had spurred hopes of a nine-digit opening. Expectations were also goosed by the full-court press behind the film, with the studio pulling out all the stops to hype the conclusion of Craig’s storyline. Not to mention, reviews were an improvement on those for Spectre, which had a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 63% — more than 20 points lower than No Time to Die’s average.

All of that said, comparisons between No Time to Die and Let There Be Carnage in terms of box office aren’t entirely fair. Though the Sony sequel’s audience skewed substantially older than that of the first Venom (71% of the audience who turned out for the original was under the age of 25, versus 55% for Let There Be Carnage), the fact is that the Bond franchise skews significantly older. Case in point: 57% of No Time to Die’s opening weekend audience was over the age of 35, while 36% was over the age of 45. As has been shown over the course of the pandemic, moviegoers over the age of 35 – particularly women – tend to be more cautious than younger demographics when it comes to returning to theaters. Additionally, at 2 hours and 43 minutes, No Time to Die is nearly an hour longer than Let There Be Carnage, allowing for fewer showtimes – and thereby less revenue – each day.

The studio cites “preliminary internal polling data “which indicates that 25% of moviegoers who showed up in North American theaters this weekend returned to theaters for the first time since the start of the pandemic, offering a hopeful spin on No Time to Die‘s ability to lure holdouts back to the multiplex after over a year-and-a-half. If that statistic bears out, it may also bode well for the film’s long-term box office prospects. In addition to garnering a good A- Cinemascore and a solid 88% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, No Time to Die is only available to watch in theaters, giving audiences no alternative route to view the film at home. Strong word-of-mouth could help keep it afloat against forthcoming competition including next weekend’s Halloween Kills and The Last Duel and the following weekend’s highly anticipated sci-fi epic Dune.  

Falling to second place in its sophomore frame is Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which dropped 64% to an estimated $32M. That’s a steeper second-weekend drop than we saw for the first Venom, which fell 56%, though that film didn’t have a behemoth like Bond follow so quickly on its heels. Nonetheless, Let There Be Carnage has $141.67M to date – less than 1% behind the first Venom at the same point in its run, though the studio is projecting that the sequel will surpass the original installment tomorrow, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday that many Americans have off from work.

With no other family-friendly alternatives currently in wide release, The Addams Family 2 held well in its second weekend, dropping 42% to an estimated $10.02M for a total of $31.14M so far. That’s actually a better hold than the first Addams Family, which dropped 46% in its sophomore frame – though of course, that film debuted to nearly $13M more, a difference at least partially attributable to the sequel’s day-and-date availability on PVOD.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings finished at No. 4 with an estimated $4.2M in its sixth weekend of release, bringing the Disney/Marvel title – the only film to cross the $200M mark during the pandemic – to a grand total of $212.5M so far.

After opening to a mild $4.65M last weekend, Warner Bros.’ The Many Saints of Newark fell to fifth place with an estimated $1.45M, a rather steep 69% decline. The Sopranos prequel, which debuted day-and-date on HBO Max, has $7.41M after 10 days of release.

Disney/20^th Century Studios’ Free Guy finished in sixth place with an estimated $1.3M in its ninth weekend of release, bringing the total for the Ryan Reynolds action-comedy to $119.68M.

Debuting in limited release was the A24 horror film Lamb, which broke into the top 10 with $1,000,079 from 583 screens — good enough for a seventh-place finish according to estimates.

Universal’s Dear Evan Hansen finished a hair behind in eighth place with an estimated $1,000,000 in its third weekend, bringing the total for the Broadway musical adaptation to $13.7M.

Finally, Universal’s Candyman finished at No. 9 with an estimated $700k in its seventh weekend, while Disney’s Jungle Cruise rounded out the top 10 with an estimated $214k in weekend number 11. Their totals stand at $60.07M and $116.55M, respectively.

OVERSEAS

Softer-than-expected debut in North America notwithstanding, No Time to Die continued cleaning up in its second frame overseas, where it grossed a terrific $89.54M from 66 markets. The Bond installment, which was released largely by Universal internationally (with some MGM territories), has taken in north of $257.27M overseas and $313.28M worldwide. The film debuted at No. 1 in France with an estimated $10.1M, the highest debut of the pandemic in the country to date. In the U.K. and Ireland, it took in an estimated $20.5M, a slight 28% drop from its first weekend in the territory. Its total there is now $70.9M, making it the fourth highest-grossing Universal title of all time in the market. No Time to Die opens in China on Oct. 29 and in Australia on Nov. 11.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage took in an estimated $24.8M from 13 markets overseas, including a terrific $20M in Latin America. The Sony sequel’s international total is now $43.9M and its global tally is $185.6M.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings crossed the $400M global mark this weekend after taking in another estimated $4.9M from 46 territories. The MCU installment’s international total is now $189.1M and its worldwide tally is $401.6M. Disney reports that its releases will pass the collective $2B global mark tomorrow for 2021, making it the first MPA studio to hit that number this year. A total of seven of Disney’s films have surpassed $100M worldwide so far this year: Shang-Chi, Black Widow, Free Guy, Cruella, Jungle Cruise, Raya and the Last Dragon and Soul.

Warner Bros.’ Dune grossed another $8.8M from 32 international markets this weekend, bringing its overseas total to $117.1M. It opens in North America on Oct. 22.

Sunday’s Studio Weekend Estimates: October 8-10, 2021