The Silver State took gold last week in the US box office recovery race! Nevada became the first US state to achieve a median level of pre-pandemic box office (based on 2018-2019 figures) – the Stage 4 target on Gower Street’s Blueprint To Recovery.
Nevada achieved the feat for the October 1 play-week when carnage reigned, VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE to be specific! Given Nevada’s association with casinos it seems appropriate that a film whose protagonist and antagonist are, respectively, black and red in colour should be the champion. The deck was stacked in its favour!
Nevada’s Stage 4 target was a play-week grossing $2.2 million. The state recovery tracker (above) shows Nevada’s path to Stage 4 and its consistency of performance over the past year. The arrival of VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE provided a much-needed boost after several weeks of box office regression.
The Marvel anti-hero sequel scored big in its Domestic launch delivering pandemic-era best weeks in 8 additional US states: Texas (which achieved 92% of its own Stage 4 goal), Arizona (91%), New Mexico (90%), Wyoming (87%), Alaska (84%), North Dakota (79%), Florida (77%), and New Jersey (75%). The film also delivered the best Domestic market opening since STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER in December 2019.
Several Canadian provinces have previously achieved their Stage 4 targets. The first to do so were Quebec and Prince Edward Island for the July 16 play-week, when SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY landed in support of market-leader BLACK WIDOW (in week 2). These were followed in the September 3 play-week by Ontario and British Columbia, fueled by the opening of another Marvel title SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS.
