There’s been rumours of a release date change for the Venom sequel (again) for a while now, as Hollywood eyed the Labour Day weekened to test the confidence of audiences returning to U.S. theatres in the wake of rising delta variant cases of covid-19. It turns out those rumours were true… but not in the way many people expected.
Sony has indeed updated its release date for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, from its former October 15 release date. However, unlike previous rumours had suggested, the studio is not delaying the film, a recurring theme for spring 2021 as audience hesitancy coming into the season and rising covid-19 cases in key states as seen Hollywood at large wrestle with even more disruption.
Instead, Let There Be Carnage has decided to let the Carnage come two whole weeks earlier, and the film will now release in the U.S. on October 1.
Editor’s Note: There’s no word yet on whether this will impact the local Australian release date.
As Deadline reports, previous rumours saw Sony considering a potential exit out of 2021 altogether for Andy Serkis’ follow up to the surprise 2018 hit. But after Shang-Chi defied all previous estimates to bring in a hefty $US90 ($121) million over the Labour Day weekend — breaking records, pandemic or otherwise, in the process — the studio believes that Marvel fans are willing to deal with mask and vaccine mandates to return to the movie theatres as spring begins.
The sequel, starring the returning Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson as Eddie Brock/Venom and Cletus Kasady/Carnage, will be going up against its own past records: the original Venom, after mixed critical reception, took a second-best October premiere record with a $US80.2 ($108) million debut (it actually held the record for a year, until Joker’s 2019 debut).
Time will tell just how Let There Be Carnage fares — after all, renewed confidence or otherwise, there is still a pandemic happening — but Sony’s at least confident that where Marvel heroes go, their fans will follow.