'Venom: The Last Dance' Has a Solid Global Debut
by EG
Comic-book sequel Venom: The Last Dance enjoyed solid ticket sales in international markets over the weekend, but its debut in the US was more muted. The franchise suffered a similar fate to most recent superhero movies, an indication that audiences are browing increasingly bored of the genre. Still, Venom was able to take the top spot on the box-office chart away from last week's number-one movie, the horror sequel Smile 2. Read on for details.
Venom: The Last Dance had a hard time hitting a home run at the domestic box office, but more than made up for the deficit overseas to boast a worldwide opening on par with the last installment. Nor did it have any trouble coming in No. 1 both domestically and globally.
The final title in Sony’s franchise — based on the popular comic book antihero — opened to $51 million from 4,131 theaters in North America, well behind an expected $65 million, or the $90 million domestic launch of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The opposite was true overseas, where Last Dance debuted in line with expectations with $124 million for a global start of $175 million against a relatively modest budget of $120 million. It slithered to $46 million in China, the best showing for a superhero movie since 2019 and the best showing of the year to date for a Hollywood title.
On Saturday, it looked as if Last Dance might actually get to $180 million globally, five percent better than 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage. But that didn’t materialize, although numbers could shift again by the the time final international grosses are tallied Monday. Either way, Sony and its financing partners, including TSG, say they are in good shape.
In the U.S., there’s no doubt that the World Series showdown between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees impacted the box office — particularly in the West — but L.A. and New York still led all markets for Venom 3. Insiders close to the film are also worried that people are distracted by early Halloween parties. It’s not uncommon for threequels to fall off, but no one on the Venom team is happy about the severity of the decline as comic book fatigue rears its ugly head again..
In North America, the first Venom opened to $80.2 million in 2018, then a record for October. It lost the crown a year later to Joker ($96.2 million). Let There Be Carnage‘s $90 million debut in October 2021 was a boon for theater owners who were still recovering from the pandemic, and a major win for Sony. Exhibitors were also counting on The Last Dance to bring in robust traffic after a tough October 2024 (some thought it would even get to $70 million).
The fanboy-fueled series has never been a hit with critics, as the latest installment landed on Rotten Tomatoes with a 37 percent critics score and earned a franchise-worse B- CinemaScore from audiences.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.