‘Venom 3’ slinks to $51 million, lowest opening weekend of comic book trilogy

“Venom: The Last Dance” is No. 1 at the box office, but the comic book film fell significantly short of expectations.

The third and final entry in Sony’s Marvel antihero series, led by Tom Hardy, opened to a muted $51 million from 4,125 North American theaters. Rival studios estimate the final weekend number will be under $50 million. Those ticket sales are far behind projections of $65 million and much lower than the prior two installments of 2018’s “Venom,” which opened to $80 million, and 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which opened to a then-pandemic record $90 million. Sony believes the World Series matchup between the Yankees and the Dodgers kept people at home on Saturday and Sunday, yet New York City and Los Angeles were the two biggest markets for “Venom 3.”

Despite the slow liftoff in North America, the third “Venom” is getting a boost from international audiences. The “Spider-Man” spinoff has feasted on $124 million overseas for a global start of $175 million.

“The Last Dance” cost $120 million to produce, not including worldwide marketing efforts. That’s far less than most superhero movies, like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which each cost upwards of $200 million. Yet since theater owners get to keep roughly half of ticket sales, the third “Venom” needs to stick around on the big screen beyond its debut to justify that price tag. After much bigger launches, the first “Venom” powered to $856 million worldwide while “Let There Be Carnage” surpassed $500 million worldwide. 

This series has never been a critical darling, and the latest installment isn’t an exception with a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet fans may be tiring of the franchise, too, as audience members bestowed the film a “B-” on CinemaScore, the lowest grade of the trilogy. Kelly Marcel, who wrote the first two films, directed the PG-13 threequel, which stars Hardy as investigative journalist Eddie Brock and his unwitting sidekick and parasite Venom, both of whom are on the run from their worlds.

“This was a step down in terms of content, and it was painfully obvious to the audience by the trailers alone,” says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “Superhero fans want the stakes raised with each successive installment — that just didn’t happen with ‘The Last Dance.’”

After a lighter-than-expected October, overall box office returns remain 11.4% behind the same point in 2023 and 26.8% from 2019, according to Comscore. Most major studios didn’t want to release a movie around the election, so the only titles on the calendar in the coming weeks are Sony’s “Here,” a poorly reviewed drama directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring digitally de-aged versions of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright (Nov. 1), and Amazon’s Christmas comedy “Red One,” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing Santa’s head of security (Nov. 15). Otherwise, there won’t be another tentpole to salvage the state of cinema-going until “Gladiator 2” and “Wicked” on Nov. 22, followed by “Moana 2” on Nov. 27.

“Moviegoing is falling back into its sunken state. ‘Joker 2’ left a hole, and ‘Venom 3’ is not filling it,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “There’s little momentum right now.”

To that end, “Joker: Folie à Deux” plunged to the No. 12 spot in its fourth weekend of release, collecting a dismal $600,000 from 1,243 venues. The follow-up to 2019’s billion-dollar hit “Joker” has turned into a box office disaster with $57.8 million domestically and $201.1 million globally. By comparison, the original “Joker” remained in the top two for five weeks and powered to $335 million domestically and $21.07 billion worldwide. The $200 million-budgeted Warner Bros. sequel won’t get anywhere near those grosses and is poised to lose $150 million to $200 million in its theatrical run.

Another new release, Ralph Fiennes-led thriller “Conclave,” opened above expectations at No. 3 with $6.5 million from 1,753 theaters. Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) directed “Conclave,” a tense Vatican-set drama about the selection of the new pope — which comes with secrets that could shake the church’s foundation. Focus Features acquired domestic rights to the PG film, which has solid reviews and hopes to find itself in the Oscar race. Audiences also liked “Conclave,” which landed a “B+” on CinemaScore. Ticket buyers were mostly older men, with 77% over the age of 35 and 54% identifying as male.

“This is a very good opening for an awards drama,” says Gross. “The Catholic church provides an endless supply of dramatic, cinematic material.”

Elsewhere at the domestic box office, Paramount’s thriller “Smile 2” slid to second place with $9.6 million, declining 59% from its debut. The R-rated sequel to 2022’s “Smile,” which topped the box office last weekend, has generated $40.7 million in North America and $83 million worldwide to date. It cost $28 million and will become profitable, though not as successful as the original, which earned $105 million in North America and $217 million globally.

Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” dropped to No. 4 with $6.2 million in its fifth weekend of release. The well-reviewed family film has endured at the box office with minimal week to week drops, amassing $111 million domestically and $232 million worldwide so far.

A24’s weepy romantic drama “We Live in Time” remained in fifth place with $4.8 million while expanding to 1,939 theaters. The film, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh as a young couple in unenviable circumstances, has grossed a solid $11.7 million to date.

Meanwhile, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora” cracked the top 10 with $867,142 from just 34 venues — translating to a robust $25,504 per location. Neon nabbed rights to the film at Cannes and will continue to widen the footprint for “Anora,” a comic look at an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, through the fall and into awards season.