Box Office: ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ Laps Up $22 Million Opening Day — Down From Previous Entries

“Venom: The Last Dance” is two-stepping slower than its series predecessors in North America, after chowing down on $22 million from 4,131 domestic theaters across Friday and previews. That’s well below the first-day debuts of both the first “Venom” in 2018 ($32 million) and its 2021 sequel “Let There Be Carnage” ($37 million). It also puts Columbia Pictures’ trilogy capper on pace to land behind its projections, which had forecast an opening weekend in the neighborhood of $65 million.

That’s a definite downtrend for the franchise stateside, though “The Last Dance,” co-financed by TSG, is still tracking for the biggest domestic opening weekend since “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” dominated in September. Sony is counting on international markets to bolster fortunes, as they have for previous “Venom” entries. The current expectation is that the parasite buddy-comedy will slightly outperform the global opening of “Let There Be Carnage.” Both prior “Venom” films were killers overseas, with the original nabbing a massive $642 million outside of North America. And even at a fraction of that, the second entry still hit $293 million overseas.

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“The Last Dance” has a leaner production budget than most superhero tentpoles at $120 million, but it will look for similar, sustained turnout from international audiences to prove a worthwhile investment. Reviews have been poor, though that hasn’t proven to be an obstacle for the “Venom” series before. But fans are much less enthusiastic this time around, as indicated by the “B-” grade from audience survey firm Cinemascore. Both prior “Venom” entries were received more warmly, each with a “B+.”

Outside of outliers like Disney’s mega-blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” this summer, most recent comic book adaptations have had trouble drawing the massive audiences that the genre pulled in prior years. Sony already suffered a superhero bomb this year with “Madame Web,” another “Spider-Man” spin-off that barely inched past $100 million globally. While “Venom” star Tom Hardy has floated the prospect of more “symbiote stories to tell,” it’s entirely plausible that “The Last Dance” could end up being the Marvel antihero’s last outing for some time, especially if box office returns fall short of previous entries.

Kelly Marcel, who wrote both previous “Venom” entries, tapped in to direct this threequel, which sees Hardy return as the haggard journalist Eddie Brock, and also reprising the voice role of the eponymous, growling gooey alien. He’s joined by a crew of franchise newcomers, including Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach and Cristo Fernandez. Stephen Graham returns after featuring in “Venom 2.”

Contending for third place in its opening, Focus Features is going wide with its papal thriller “Conclave,” after earning strong reviews at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. Directed by Edward Berger, whose last effort “All Quiet on the Western Front” was a technical awards juggernaut at the Oscars, the Vatican-set feature earned $2.5 million from 1,753 theaters on its opening day. Notably, the film drew older audiences in its opening day, with early exits indicating that 77% of ticketbuyers were 35 years and older. It nabbed a B+ on Cinemascore. “Conclave” is hoping for sustained play bolstered by awards buzz, particularly for stars Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini.

Paramount’s “Smile 2” will slide to second place after opening on top last weekend. The horror film is projecting $10.3 million for its sophomore outing, which would mark a 55% fall. It always seemed far-fetched that the sequel could replicate the minuscule 18% drop that the first “Smile” posted on its way to a triumphant, word-of-mouth finish above $100 million domestic. Even so, at a slim production budget of $28 million, “Smile 2” is positioned well enough as it crosses $40 million through Sunday.

“The Wild Robot” is still hanging in the top five, projecting $6.2 million for its fifth weekend of release. The DreamWorks Animation feature looks to cross $110 million through Sunday. The Universal release will soon pass up “IF” ($111 million) and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” ($113 million) to become the 13th-highest-grossing domestic release of the year.

A24’s “We Live in Time” saw roughly $1.83 million on Friday, as the tearjerker adds nearly 2,000 locations in its second expansion. Rivals are projecting a $5 million weekend for the Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield two-hander, which would be up 20% from last weekend. The film will surpass $10 million in North America on Saturday.

“Terrifier 3” looks to saw into roughly $4.5 million (a 51% drop) in its third weekend of release. Cineverse’s indie horror triumph should surpass $44 million through Sunday — triple the combined grosses of both “Terrifier” and “Terrifier 2,” with more sales to come.