Hollywood didn't exactly pull out the big guns for this past weekend. Thanks to Halloween being on a Thursday, there wasn't a big opportunity for a hot new horror movie to take advantage of the holiday, and Robert Zemeckis' Here was the only new wide release as the the majority of studios seemingly expected Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance to dominate the box office.
Now the numbers are in, and things played out pretty much as expected. Venom: The Last Dance has another first place finish to add to its box office legacy, and Here didn't put up much of a fight. You can check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Venom: The Last Dance | $26,100,000 | $90,047,000 | 1 | 4,131 |
| 2. The Wild Robot | $7,550,000 | $121,476,000 | 3 | 3,231 |
| 3. Smile 2 | $6,800,000 | $52,687,000 | 2 | 3,235 |
| 4. Conclave | $5,300,000 | $15,222,000 | 4 | 1,796 |
| 5. Here* | $5,000,000 | $5,000,000 | N/A | 2,647 |
| 6. We Live In Time | $3,474,299 | $17,694,022 | 5 | 2,964 |
| 7. Terrifier 3 | $3,227,684 | $50,541,750 | 6 | 2,357 |
| 8. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3* | $2,230,000 | $2,230,000 | N/A | 754 |
| 9. Singham Again* | $2,190,000 | $2,190,000 | N/A | 749 |
| 10. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | $2,085,000 | $292,099,000 | 7 | 2,251 |
Venom: The Last Dance Is Still Tracking Behind Its Predecessors But Has Crossed $300 Million Worldwide
As I noted in my box office column last week, Venom: The Last Dance's big screen performance this far has upended expectations. In being the final chapter of a successful trilogy, prognostications suggested that Tom Hardy-led comic book blockbuster would do business similar to its predecessors, but that hasn't been the case at all. On the domestic front, the movie could be classified as a disappointment, as it is lagging far behind the performances of its predecessors.
After Andy Serkis' Venom: Let There Be Carnage made an impressive $90 million in its first three days in U.S. and Canadian theaters, the new sequel managed to only make $51 million in its debut, and things aren't improving. To its credit, The Last Dance only dropped 49 percent weekend-to-weekend (an improvement compared to the 65 percent dip experienced by the 2021 feature), but it has only made $90 million to date. By the tenth day of their respective releases, both Ruben Fleischer's Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage had made over $140 million domestically.
At the start of the year, expectations were that Venom: The Last Dance would end up being one of the biggest films of the year, and thus far it is only in 20th place on the list of top grossing films of the year. If it wants to be in the Top 10 when all is said and done with 2024, it's going to have to make a lot of money quickly, as there is a big storm of blockbusters brewing at the end of November.
What is preventing Venom: The Last Dance from looking like a massive disappointment is the fact that it is putting up big numbers overseas. The movie may have underperformed domestically in its opening weekend, but missing revenue was made up in ticket sales from foreign markets. Last Sunday, the film's worldwide grosses stood at $175 million, and according to The Numbers, it has now made $317 million worldwide.
It's notable that the domestic/international ticket sales percentages of the new release look much more like those of Venom than Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The seminal film in the series, which hit theaters in October 2018, made over $200 million domestically, but over $640 outside the market (equating to a 24.9 percent domestic share). The business was very different in 2021, as the theatrical film industry was bouncing back from the pandemic shutdown, and the first sequel underperformed abroad (in the case of that release, 42.6 percent came from the United States and Canada).
So far in its big screen run, only 28.4 percent of Venom: The Last Dance's ticket sales have come from the two northernmost countries in North America.
Here Puts Up Mild Numbers In Its Opening Weekend
As I noted in my CinemaBlend review of Here, there is no shortage of filmmaking ambition in Robert Zemeckis' latest feature – which reunites the director with Forrest Gump screenwriter Eric Roth and stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. The film presents not just a non-linear story, but is told from a fixed perspective: the camera doesn't move; action simply unfolds around a single captured spot. Unfortunately, the novelty of the presentation doesn't have much to support it, and after earning underwhelming buzz following its world premiere last week, the movie just had an underwhelming debut at the box office.
Distributed by Sony Pictures, Here played in over 2,600 locations domestically this weekend, and it managed to earn just $5 million – enough to land in fifth place in the Top 10. Star power, a unique aesthetic gimmick and nostalgia relating to the 1995 winner of Best Picture at the Oscars wasn't enough to turn the new release into a success.
Based on certain metrics, it doesn't look like the film is going to be one that quietly builds an audience in the coming weeks either. Per Rotten Tomatoes' Audience Score, those who have seen the movie are liking it more than critics, but there is still far from widespread approval. Additionally, the surveys distributed by CinemaScore have not gotten great responses, as it has been given a "B-" grade.
All of this would be seen as bad for practically any major studio release, but what makes things even more tough is that Here wasn't particularly inexpensive to make. Variety reports that the film was made with a $45 million budget – and given its opening weekend performance, its hard to imagine it making all of that money back before the end of its big screen run.
Looking ahead to next weekend, the box office will be adding two very different features into the mix of Now Playing titles: Dallas Jenkins' The Best Christmas Pageant Ever starring Judy Greer and Pete Holmes will be working to get folks into the holiday spirt, while Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' Heretic will be aiming to seriously creep people out with incisive criticism of organized religion. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how they perform in the Top 10, and get a preview of everything on the way to theaters in what remains of the year via our 2024 Movie Release Calendar.
