Did Venom sow the seeds of Top Gun: Maverick's success? Sony bosses say so

Date:
Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:34:38 +0000

Description:
Sony Pictures bosses have claimed that the studio's slate of theatrical releases paved the way for Top Gun: Maverick's box office success.

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Sony Pictures head honchos Sanford Panitch and Josh Greenstein believe their studio deserves some credit for the stratospheric success of Top Gun:
Maverick .

In a recent interview with Vulture, the pair claimed that Sonys decision to release movies including Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Spider-Man: No Way Home exclusively in theaters during the pandemic paved the way for Top Gun: Mavericks $1.2 billion (and counting) haul at the global box office.

Theres so much press about Top Gun right now, Panitch said. Its like, The movie business is back!' In a weird way, I would say Top Gun is benefitting from us taking our shot. Venom is the start of that story that allows Top Gun to do the kind of business it did. These things dont happen overnight. Its a seeding.

When we first started releasing movies last October, there were really no other big movies, Greenstein added. Everyone had pushed their big movies to this year, to this summer. We took a big gamble putting Venom in theaters. Then we doubled down with Ghostbusters. Then our biggest bet was when every other tentpole had fled, we tripled down with Spider-Man our biggest, most important piece of IP.

The Sony Pictures co-presidents arent wrong to wear the success of their theatrical releases with pride. Venom: Let There Be Carnage grossed a worldwide total of $506 million following its release in October last year, before Ghostbusters: Afterlife scooped $204 million and Spider-Man: No Way Home stormed to a record-breaking $1.9 billion (becoming the third-highest-grossing film of all time in the process). (Image credit: 2019 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.)

However, to try and lay claim to a portion of Top Gun: Mavericks stellar box office haul is a little strong. The Paramount tentpole was always destined
for a big screen release it was delayed three times to avoid being condemned to streaming services and its success came down to a combination of overwhelmingly (and unexpectedly) positive critical reception, word-of-mouth popularity and generation-spanning appeal as a legacy sequel.

Whats more, Sony was far from the first studio to brave a return to cinemas. The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.) and Last Night in Soho (Universal) released theatrically in August and September, respectively (i.e. before Venom: Let There Be Carnage), while the release dates for other 2021 movies like No Time to Die (Universal) and Dune (Warner Bros.) were already set prior to any theatrical success Sony would go on to enjoy.

Then theres the small matter of Tenet (Warner Bros.), which gambled on an exclusive theatrical release to the tune of $365 million way back in September 2020 (we even published a piece at the time praising director Christopher Nolans efforts to spearhead a much-needed box office recovery).

Respectfully, then, Venom: Let There Be Carnage had little bearing on Top
Gun: Maverick's commercial performance at least in our view.

Or maybe it did. But that begs the question: why didnt its recent Sony stablemates Morbius and Where the Crawdads Sing enjoy the same symbiotic bounce?



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/did-venom-sow-the-seeds-of-top-gun-mavericks-su ccess-sony-bosses-say-so/


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