'Venom' Wins Another Weekend

Astronaut biopic First Man proved to be no match for a super antihero and a musical love story. Venom won its second straight weekend, and A Star Is Born did very well in its second weekend, too, Read on for more details about the weekend box-office results.

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

Universal's critically acclaimed astronaut drama First Man faltered in its box-office blastoff, grossing $16.5 million from 3,640 theaters to come in well behind holdovers Venom and A Star Is Born. The hope now is that the adult-skewing film will be buoyed by a slow burn throughout awards season.

Conversely, Sony's Venom, which stayed No. 1 as it crossed $378 million globally, and Warner Bros.' A Star Is Born continued to rock the October box office in their sophomore outings with an estimated domestic payload of $35.7 million and $28 million, respectively. Venom fell less than expected at 56 percent, while Star Is Born dipped 35 percent.

Reuniting Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle with his La La Land star Ryan Gosling, First Man is a visceral retelling of Neil Armstrong's journey to the moon in 1969. Heading into the weekend, the biographical drama was tracking to open in the $18 million-$20 million range (some services had it slightly higher). Audiences liked the film less than critics, giving it a B+ CinemaScore.

View this post on Instagram

#Repost from @annehathaway: I keep thinking how we move through things so quickly these days (how could we not?); I know my personal capacity to absorb something new is often maxed out. For example, a movie opens, we are “obsessed” for a weekend, we move on. I do this too: even when I really love something, I get distracted by the next thing, don’t fully digest the experience and I quickly move on, like the world exists only to entertain me, like great art is unlimited, that my consumption of it as an everyday all-you-can eat buffet is acceptable. We are so fortunate- a ton of worthy, excellent movies are going to come out between now and the end of the year, and our plates are going to become increasingly full. That said, I think A Star Is Born is so special, so ambitious, so audacious and so brilliantly human that it shouldn’t just be a news story for one weekend. Even being so excited about what’s coming out, I want to really luxuriate in appreciation for A Star is Born. I saw this film back in August at the Venice Film Festival and I still walk around feeling lucky I was in that audience. This film surprised me in the best possible way; it even killed some cynicism that I didn’t know had snuck into my heart. I loved it. I hope you see it. Bravo @ladygaga. Bravo #bradleycooper. Thank you. Encore 🌹

A post shared by A Star Is Born (@starisbornmovie) on

"Our core audience, adult males, don’t necessarily run out on opening weekend," says Jim Orr, Universal's president of domestic distribution, noting that males made up 56 percent of ticket buyers, while more than half of the audience was over the age of 35. "We'll have a great run for weeks and months to come."

Internationally, First Man took in $8.6 million from its first 22 markets, led by the U.K. ($3.1 million), where it placed behind A Star Is Born ($3.8 million). That puts its global launch at $25.1 million.

During the publicity tour for First Man, there was a dust-up over Chazelle's decision not to show the famous image of Armstrong planting the American flag.

Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

Did you see a movie this weekend? Tell us which one in the comments below.

Watch Venom
Latest Venom News