Venom: The Last Dance Puts Up Unexpected Box Office Numbers In Its Opening Weekend

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While Sony's Spider-Man Universe has released a couple of box office bombs in S.J. Clarkson's Madame Web and Daniel Espinosa's Morbius, it's been the Venom movies that have kept the franchise on its feet. The Dakota Johnson and Jared Leto-led films barely managed to make their budgets back globally, but both Ruben Fleischer's Venom and Andy Serkis' Venom: The There Be Carnage were huge hits when they respectively arrived in theaters in 2018 and 2021. Because of this, there were some big expectations set for Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance – the conclusion of the trilogy – going into its opening weekend.

As it turns out, those expectations were not met. The early numbers are in, and while the new superhero movie did manage to steal #1 spot from Parker Finn's Smile 2, its domestic ticket sales are underwhelming compared to the bar set by its predecessors. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.

Venom: The Last Dance Opening Weekend Ticket Sales Are A Big Step Down From The Last Two Films

When Venom: Let There Be Carnage arrived in theaters in 2021, it didn't receive a warm critical reception, but it did inspire a sigh of relief from those keeping an eye on big picture box office developments. At the time, the industry was still in the early months of bouncing back from theater closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Venom sequel provided a fantastic shot in the arm – not just making a lot of money in its opening weekend ($90 million), but actually outperforming the first movie (which made $80.3 million in its first three days).

The performance suggested audiences had become invested in the tale of Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock and his gooey extraterrestrial pal, and one would think that would lead to even bigger numbers for what has been promised as the conclusion of their adventure... but that's not the story that the ticket sales are telling.

According to The Numbers, Venom: The Last Dance made $51 million – which is considerably lower than the $65 million estimates that were reported in the middle of last week. The movie doesn't seem to have as much heat as its predecessors domestically, though one silver lining is that it did do better in its first three days than Morbius (which made $39 million when it debuted in 2022) and Madame Web (which bombed when it made $15.3 million back in February).

One issue may be that the buzz for Venom: The Last Dance isn't quite existing on the same level as the previous blockbusters. Metrics show that the opinions of critics and general audiences have never been aligned when it comes to these movies, but the new sequel shows that there is a touch more consensus. Rotten Tomatoes has Venom 3 sporting the lowest Audience score in the trilogy, and it got a "B-" from CinemaScore surveys after both of the previous films received "B+" grades.

Obviously that's not going to be helpful as the new comic book movie tries to grow some long legs in the coming weeks to make up for its slow start.

There is a silver lining here for Venom: The Last Dance in its opening weekend, but one must look beyond theaters in the United States and Canada to see it. The new comic book movie may have underperformed domestically, but it appears to be overperforming abroad. The same report that suggested the film would make $65 million at home prognosticated $85 million coming in from foreign markets, and that turned out to be a conservative estimate.

The $51 million reportedly earned at home has been matched by a $124 million haul from international markets, bringing the film's worldwide gross to date to $175 million. With a reported production budget of $120 million before marketing and publicity (slightly more expensive than Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage), it still has some money to make before its firmly in the black.

Venom: The Last Dance will be a notable curiosity to follow in the coming weeks, if not especially because early November isn't providing any major direct competition. That being said, the end of next month is jam packed (titles including Ridley Scott's Gladiator II, Jon M. Chu's Wicked and Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, and David Derrick Jr.'s Moana 2), so the film can't really afford to have a hard drop in its second weekend.

In the long view, it will also be interesting to see what kind of impact this box office development has on the plans for the future of Sony's Spider-Man Universe. It's been a tough year for the franchise so far, but 2024 isn't over yet, as J.C. Chandor's Kraven The Hunter is still waiting to make its debut this December.

Smile 2 Holds Second Place With A Surprisingly Large Drop

As I noted in my box office column last week, there was every expectation that Smile 2 would drop down in the domestic Top 10 with the release of Venom: The Last Dance – the only question was in regard to just what kind of it the new horror movie would take. The film was boosted by strong buzz from both critics and audiences... but looking at the end results, they aren't great.

After making $23 million in its first three days of release, Smile 2 saw its weekend-to-weekend ticket sales fall 59 percent. The new movie added $9.4 million to its coffers domestically, meaning that it has made $40.7 million in the market to date.

Those can't be results that folks at Paramount Pictures were hoping for, especially given the incredible run that the previous movie had. Released in late September 2022, Smile made $22.6 in its first Friday-to-Sunday and then saw only a 18 percent change ($18.5 million) the following weekend.

Halloween being mid-week this year means that the holiday isn't likely to be a huge boon to the film, but it will be interesting to see if Smile 2 gets a box office bump on Thursday.

Looking ahead, Robert Zemeckis' Here is arriving in theaters as the big new wide release of the week following its premiere at AFI Fest over the weekend. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how it shakes up the Top 10, and scope out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to learn about all of the films set to arrive in theaters between now and the end of the year.