The Last Dance’ takes first place at the weekend box office, but falls short of projections

NEW YORK- “Venom: The Last Dance” showed less strength than expected at the box office, grossing $51 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, significantly less than previous entries in the symbiote alien franchise.

Projections for Sony Pictures’ third “Venom” movie were approaching $65 million. More worrying, however, was the decline of the first two “Venom” films.

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, without taking into account promotion and marketing, was about $120 million, significantly less than that of most comic book films.

But “The Last Dance” is also doing better overseas. Internationally, “Venom: The Last Dance” grossed $124 million over the weekend, including $46 million during its five-day release in China.

That’s enough for one of the best international weekends of the year for a Hollywood premiere.

Still, neither the reviews (36% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) nor the audience scores (a franchise-low “B-” CinemaScore) have been good for the film written by Kelly Marcel and Hardy, and directed by Marcel.

The slow weekend for “Venom: The Last Dance” will also likely ensure that superhero movies experience their lowest-grossing year in a dozen years, not counting the pandemic year of 2020, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant. which publishes a newsletter for entertainment franchises.

Following in the footsteps of the The failure of “Joker: Folie à Deux”Gross estimates that 2024 superhero movies will gross around $2.25 billion worldwide.

The only upcoming movie is Marvel’s “Kraven the Hunter,” which will be released on December 13. Even with “Deadpool & Wolverine” making $1.3 billion, the genre, in general, hasn’t dominated like it once did. In 2018, for example, superhero movies accounted for more than $7 billion in global ticket sales.

Last week’s biggest movie, Paramount Pictures horror sequel “Smile 2” fell to second place with $9.4 million. That brings its two-week total to $83.7 million worldwide.

The biggest hit of the weekend could have been “Conclave,” the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”).

The Focus Features release, a leading Oscar contender, opened with $6.5 million in 1,753 theaters.

That placed “Conclave” in third place, making it the rare adult-oriented drama to leave a theatrical imprint. About 77% of ticket buyers were over 35 years old, Focus said.

With a solid opening and stellar reviews, “Conclave” could continue to gain momentum among moviegoers and Oscar voters alike.

Estimated ticket sales from Friday to Sunday at theaters in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore. Final national figures will be published on Monday.

1. “Venom: The Last Dance”, $51 million.

2. “Smile 2”, $9.4 million.

3. “Conclave”, 6.5 million dollars.

4. “The Wild Robot”, $6.5 million.

5. “We live in time”, $4.8 million.

6. “Terror 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.