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IMAX Has Best October Weekend Ever Thanks to Venom 2 & No Time To Die
IMAX scores its best October weekend ever thanks to the combined efforts of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and No Time to Die. 2021 has been a rollercoaster year for movie theaters as the box office slowly inches back to normal. The arrival of vaccines has allowed theaters to reopen once more, though despite some encouraging signs in the spring, summer saw some lower numbers than experts had hoped as rising case numbers seemingly led to a dip in customers' eagerness to return. Luckily, the past few weeks have shown more positive signs of recovery thanks to the incredible performances of movies like Free Guy, Candyman, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
With this past weekend, the fall movie season has officially swung into high gear. Because of all the schedule reshuffling studios have been forced to do amid the pandemic, the final months of 2021 will see the release of some of the biggest movies of the year. Venom: Let There Be Carnage just kicked things off with the biggest opening weekend of the pandemic era, having scored an impressive $90.1 million. Overseas, No Time to Die is similarly breaking pandemic records by opening to over $100 million.
Both of those films, plus Chinese blockbuster The Battle of Lake Changjin, have pushed IMAX to its best weekend since the pandemic began. IMAX announced Sunday it had hit $30 million globally over the weekend, which is its best October frame yet and the best for the company since December 2019. Venom: Let There Be Carnage earned $9.6 million worldwide on IMAX screens, which amounted to 9.5% of its opening total. No Time to Die, meanwhile, pulled in $6.8 million from 284 IMAX screens in 50 international markets. It represented two firsts for the James Bond franchise: The first movie to be filmed in IMAX, and the best IMAX opening for the series. IMAX's president, Megan Colligan, said in a statement:
This weekend was an unqualified success, proving what today’s box office is capable of — not just with select regions or releases, but with a diverse offering of great content across every key region. The perception may be that these films are overperforming, but the reality is that many people are underestimating just how excited global consumers are to get back to the movies.
Going forward, there are several more IMAX-friendly movies slated for release in the coming months. No Time to Die arrives in North America next weekend, and Dune will follow just two weeks after. Dune is especially poised to be big for IMAX, as director Denis Villeneuve said it was made to be seen in that premium format. Other major movies scheduled to arrive within the last three months of 2021 include Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and The Matrix Resurrections.
IMAX's exciting report is just more good news for the theater industry. While streaming has been a viable alternative to theaters amid the pandemic, certain blockbusters truly benefit from the big screen experience. It's clear from Venom 2 and No Time to Die's IMAX numbers that audiences are excited to see these long-awaited big screen spectacles in the best venues possible. It'll be interesting to see how the other major movies of 2021 perform going forward.
