‘Venom’ has biggest bite at box office

The new “Venom” movie took a record-setting bite out of the box office.

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” opened with $90.1 million in North American theaters between Friday and Sunday, giving it the biggest weekend of any movie since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Deadline.

The previous record was held by another film based on the Marvel comics, Disney’s “Black Widow,” which made more than $80 million during its opening weekend in July.

The big premiere by the “Venom” sequel also exceeded the $80.2 million made by the franchise’s original movie during its first weekend in 2018.

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” again stars Tom Hardy as investigative journalist Eddie Brock, who gains superhuman abilities after becoming the host body to the alien symbiote Venom (photo).

Directed by Andy Serkis, the Sony-distributed film also stars Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady — a serial killer whose body becomes intertwined with another symbiote, Carnage — and Naomi Harris as his superpowered lover, Shriek.

The only October release in history to enjoy a bigger opening weekend is 2019’s “Joker,” which made $96.2 million.

Finishing second at the domestic box office over the weekend was another sequel — the animated “The Addams Family 2” — which made $18 million.

That movie, which debuted Friday in theaters and on premium video on demand, features a star-studded voice cast that includes Charlize Theron, Oscar Isaac and Chloë Grace Moretz.

The box-office victory for “Venom” ends a four-weekend winning streak for another superhero movie, Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” which recently became the only film to exceed $200 million at North American theaters during the pandemic.

Up next is the much-anticipated James Bond movie “No Time to Die,” which hits theaters Friday.