October 27th 2024.
The highly anticipated third installment of the "Venom" franchise, titled "Venom: The Last Dance", took a surprising turn at the box office this weekend. According to studio estimates on Sunday, the film brought in a total of $51 million in its opening weekend, falling significantly short of earlier projections. It was expected to earn around $65 million, but the final numbers were a disappointment for fans and the production team alike.
What was even more concerning was the drop in performance compared to the previous two "Venom" films. The first film in 2018 debuted with an impressive $80.2 million, while the 2021 sequel, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage", opened with an even higher $90 million. This drop in earnings could potentially affect the franchise's future prospects.
Despite the underwhelming domestic performance, "Venom: The Last Dance" is still expected to make a profit for Sony Pictures with its strong international numbers. It brought in an impressive $124 million over the weekend, including a staggering $46 million in its first five days of release in China. This makes it one of the best international openings of the year for a Hollywood film.
However, the film has not received positive reviews or audience scores so far. The script written by Kelly Marcel and lead actor Tom Hardy has not been well-received, and the direction by Marcel has also been criticized. This could also have contributed to the lower-than-expected box office numbers.
The disappointing opening weekend for "Venom: The Last Dance" has also led to projections that this year will see the lowest grossing year for superhero films in over a decade, excluding the pandemic year of 2020. According to film consultant David A. Gross, the upcoming "Kraven the Hunter" film from Marvel is the only superhero film left for this year, and is expected to bring in around $2.25 billion worldwide. This is a significant drop from 2018, when superhero films made over $7 billion in global ticket sales.
Last week's top film, "Smile 2", dropped to second place with $9.4 million, bringing its two-week total to $83.7 million worldwide. However, the biggest success story of the weekend was the release of "Conclave", a papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Edward Berger. The film, which is a major Oscar contender, earned an impressive $6.5 million in its opening weekend in 1,753 theaters. This puts it in third place at the box office and makes it a rare adult-oriented drama to have a strong theatrical performance.
According to Focus Features, the studio behind "Conclave", 77% of ticket buyers were over the age of 35, indicating that the film is resonating with an older audience. With positive reviews and a strong opening, "Conclave" has a good chance of gaining momentum both with moviegoers and with Oscar voters.
In other movie news, actor Idris Elba has announced plans to move to Africa in order to boost the film industry in countries like Ghana and Tanzania. Meanwhile, Liam Neeson has hinted at retirement from action films, stating that it "has to stop" at some point. And at the age of 41, Andrew Garfield is questioning his career choices and searching for his true calling.
For movie lovers in San Jose, the upcoming short film festival promises to deliver big entertainment in small bites. And in a touching and tragic turn of events, the recent death of "Tarzan" actor Joe Lara "reunites" him with his wife and son who were also killed in a family tragedy, according to his daughter.
Final domestic ticket sales for this weekend will be released on Monday, but for now, here are the estimated numbers for the top ten films in the U.S. and Canada according to Comscore:
1. "Venom: The Last Dance" - $51 million
2. "Smile 2" - $9.4 million
3. "Conclave" - $6.5 million
4. "The Wild Robot" - $6.5 million
5. "We Live in Time" - $4.8 million
6. "Terrifier 3" - $4.3 million
7. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" - $3.2 million
8. "Anora" - $867,142
9. "Piece by Piece" - $720,000
10. "Transformers One" - $720,000
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