Venom: The Last Dance showed less bite than expected at the box office, collecting $51 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, significantly down from the alien symbiote franchise's previous entries. Projections for the third Venom film from Sony Pictures had been closer to $65 million. More concerning was the drop-off from the first two Venom films, the AP reports. The 2018 original debuted with $80.2 million, while the 2021 follow-up, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, opened with $90 million even as theaters were still in recovery mode during the pandemic.
The Last Dance, starring Tom Hardy as a journalist who shares his body with an alien entity also voiced by Hardy, could still turn a profit for Sony. Its production budget, not accounting for promotion and marketing, was about $120 million—significantly less than most comic-book films. And it's performing better overseas. Still, neither reviews (36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) nor audience scores (a franchise-low "B-" CinemaScore) have been good. The poor showing likely ensures that superhero films will see their lowest-grossing year in a dozen years, not counting the pandemic year of 2020, said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Venom: The Last Dance, $51 million.
- Smile 2, $9.4 million.
- Conclave, $6.5 million.
- The Wild Robot, $6.5 million.
- We Live in Time, $4.8 million.
- Terrifier 3, $4.3 million.
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, $3.2 million.
- Anora, $867,142.
- Piece by Piece, $720,000.
- Transformers One, $720,000.
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