While there was never anything official, the Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg movie Uncharted always seemed like it was fully expecting a sequel to be given the green light and that only a complete disaster at the box office would prevent it happening. While a sequel is yet to be confirmed in name, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman today put out a company-wide email on the back of Uncharted breaking through the $100 million mark in its opening weekend, and used it to point out that theatrical releases are still as important as ever despite the boom in streaming, as reported by Deadline.

Uncharted brings Tom Holland back into cinemas, hot on the heels of the phenomenally successful run of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Based on the popular video game series, Uncharted acts as a prequel to the games, featuring a younger version of Nathan Drake, the lead character played by Holland. Along for the ride is Mark Wahlberg as Sully, Drake’s mentor, as together the pair go on a rip-roaring treasure-hunting adventure across the world. With a lot of untold stories to tell, and a wealth of games to pull from, the film sets up a future sequel, and reading between the lines it is clearly going to get one.

Rothman’s email to staff read:

"Dear Colleagues, It is Presidents Day in America, but we are open in most places around the world today and we have another global triumph to celebrate.With over $100M in box office worldwide in just one weekend, and a 90% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Uncharted is a new hit movie franchise for the company.

This marks a great victory for every single division of the company, as the film was our first major production entirely shut down by the advent of Covid, yet we persevered to complete a picture the audience loves and marketed and distributed it with strategic verve worldwide, despite the pandemic.

The ensuing impact is proof once again of the unmatched cultural power of real movies. On the heels of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, Uncharted is yet another blow to the theatrical naysayers and further proof of the efficacy of our model.

I want to thank all of the filmmakers, the wonderful cast and crew, and especially our friends at PlayStation Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment for their support. And of course, I want to thank each and every one of you for your creativity, dedication and belief. Excelsior! Tom"

Related: Uncharted Video Game Voice Actor Praises Tom Holland as Nathan Drake

Sony Pictures Were One of The Only Studios Completely Unwilling To Release Their Big Movies on Streaming Platforms During the Pandemic

Tom Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home
Sony Pictures

As Rothman notes in his memo, Uncharted was one of Sony’s first movies to be completely shut down by the Covid pandemic, and while Sony had the option of selling off the film, their dedication in believing that some movies have to be seen in the cinema paid off in the long run.

With forecasts predicting an opening domestic weekend of around $30 million, Uncharted ended up taking just over $51 million as part of the $139 million taken to date worldwide. In all, through movies such as Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Sony’s adamant stance that it was cinematic releases or nothing has paid off to the tune of around $3 billion.

With Spider-Man: No Way Home in its 10th week on release and still hanging in the Top Ten, the Sony slate of big movies has delivered a huge reminder that no matter how popular streaming becomes, and no matter how many big name movies make their way exclusively to the likes of Amazon and Netflix, as we start to see countries deciding how to move forward and live with the Covid virus, cinema can be as big as it ever was and will only continue to grow.