October has proven to be an excellent month for cinemas and production companies. According to Variety, the spooky season has broken records and is the highest-grossing month of the year at the domestic box office thanks to big releases like Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and the latest James Bond movie, No Time To Die.
As of October 31, a total of $637 million in the US and Canada box office has been made. ComScore has reported that ticket sales for the month have managed to surpass July’s $583 million record, making October the biggest money-making month of 2021. The achievement isn’t that surprising considering how many big films were released this month. Due to Covid-19 related delays and Hollywood rescheduling flicks, October had several highly anticipated films open. The biggest money earners include Sony and Marvel’s Venom 2, the horror movie Halloween Kills, Dune: Part One, and MGM’s No Time To Die.
“The reshuffled movie release calendar created by the pandemic shifted all the box office puzzle pieces, and October came out a winner with an unusual number of hits,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at ComScore, said. “Hang onto this moment, because if history tells us anything, it’s that this is an occurrence that is not likely to be repeated any time soon.”
The most profitable box office time has historically been in the summer season, meaning May to September. However, due to Covid-19 and the Delta variant in the US surging in 2021, many cinemas experienced a “sluggish time”. In fact, the only big release in September was the MCU movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But, with the results from October and more people having access to the Covid-19 vaccine now, it appears that the movie business is really starting to pick up again.
Although October had Bond and Venom, it may still be beaten for the most profitable month this year. November and December both have massive releases that could snatch the box-office crown. Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Eternals, The Matrix: Resurrections, and Spider-Man: No Way Home are all set to come out during the last two months of 2021. We are curious to see if these anticipated flicks will be enough to beat October’s earnings.