‘Venom’ Will Own October Box Office After ‘Mowgli’ Moved Straight To Netflix
Venom is going to rule the October box office this year now that its only real competition is being pulled from the schedule and going straight to Netflix. Andy Serkis’s Mowgli will no longer debut in theaters according to Screen Rant, leaving relatively unknown films to battle it out against Sony’s newest Marvel film.
Warner Brothers’ Mowgli hasn’t been receiving a ton of press online and is a relatively unknown upcoming movie. Mowgli may have been flying under the radar due to confusion, as fans of the famous Disney character were granted a live-action Jungle Book film just two years ago. It’s extremely unusual for the exact same premise of a film to be released so close to one another.
Mowgli was filmed entirely in motion capture, something director Andy Serkis has more experience in than most actors in the movie industry. The film used voices of Andy as Baloo, Christian Bale as Bagheera, Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, and Cate Blanchett as Kaa. Despite having a star-studded cast, the film will still head straight to Netflix in 2019.
Screen Rant is attributing the pull due to Warner Brothers being afraid of a poor showing at the box office, and they now can focus promotions on bigger films in their studio like A Star is Born, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Aquaman which all debut at the end of this year.
Netflix nabs Andy Serkis' "Mowgli" from Warner Bros. https://t.co/CV98sgbv99
— Variety (@Variety) July 27, 2018
Venom will go up against A Star is Born on October 5, but the superhero film will likely dominate the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga flick with no problem whatsoever. The only other notable October films Venom will have to face in the rest of the month are Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween with Jack Black, First Man with Ryan Gosling, Bad Times at the El Royale with Chris Hemsworth, Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis, Serenity with Matthew McConaughey, and Hunter Killer with Gerard Butler.
Out of the bunch, Venom is the only true blockbuster and has the potential to run every weekend in the month. This is huge for Sony, who will consider more Marvel spin-offs with Venom‘s success. Screen Rant suggests Sony could run with Morbius, Silver & Black, and Silk if all goes well in October.
The second trailer for Venom is set to debut soon and caused quite the stir at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend as the Inquisitr previously reported.
Venom stars Tom Hardy, Jenny Slate, Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed. It hits theaters nationwide on October 5.
