Summary
Venom: The Last Dance’s opening box office gross was lower than expected. However, Tom Hardy’s latest Sony Spider-Man Universe film received some respite thanks to the international box office numbers.
Venom: The Last Danceis the concluding installment of a trilogy consisting of two financially successful films:Venomand its sequel,Let There Be Carnage. Both were flops with critics, but audiences flocked to theaters in droves, resulting in a worldwide box office total of $856.1 million forVenomand $506.9 million forLet There Be Carnage(an impressive feat considering the second film was released in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic).Venom: The Last Dancereviewswere also largely negative, but unlike its predecessor, it may have difficulty reaching the same level of box office success after opening with the lowest numbers of the franchise.
Venom: The Last Danceopened with $51 million at the domestic office, lower than the $65 million it was projected to earn over the weekend. PerVariety, rival studios estimateVenom: The Last Dance’s final opening weekend numbers will be lower than $50 million. Even if the $51 million figure holds,Venom: The Last Dancewill debut well behind the $80 millionVenomearned in its first weekend and the $90 millionLet There Be Carnagegrossed when it opened. Sony reportedly believes audiences stayed home this past weekend to watch the Yankees and the Dodgers go toe-to-toe at the World Series, despite New York and Los Angeles beingVenom: The Last Dance’s two biggest markets.
Fortunately forVenom: The Last Dance, it is seemingly a hit outside North America. The threequel earned $124 million internationally, bringing its total to $175 million worldwide. Still,Venom: The Last Danceneeds to have legs and stay in theaters to recoup its $120 million budget, as Hollywood projects generally need to earn twice their budget to break even and start making a profit. Exhibitor Relations Jeff Brock told Variety why they feltVenom: The Last Dancedidn’t entice audiences to the theater. “This was a step down in terms of content, and it was painfully obvious to the audience by the trailers alone,” Brock said. “Superhero fans want the stakes raised with each successive installment — that just didn’t happen with ‘The Last Dance.'”
Venom: The Last Dance’s underwhelming box office numbers are only the latest example of a trend for comic book movies. In early October,Joker 2bombed at the box officedespite being a sequel to a billion-dollar box office success that earned several accolades, including the Best Actor Academy Award for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as the titular character.Aquaman 2andThe Marvelsalso underperformed the previous year, falling far behind the $1 billion-plus earned by their predecessors.
Deadpool and Wolverineproved superhero fatigue hasn’t entirely overtaken audiences, but its box office success is seemingly an exception for recent comic book movies.Kraven the Hunteris expected to continue Sony’s mediocritywhen it premieres in December, which would continue the company’s record of duds afterMorbiusandMadame Webtanked financially. WhetherVenom: The Last Dancecan stick around and prove critics wrong remains to be seen, but fans must head to theaters quickly for it to end its box office run on a high note.
Venom: The Last Danceis now playing in theaters.
Venom: The Last Dance
Venom 3 is the third and final installment in Sony’s symbiote trilogy, starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. It follows the events of Let There Be Carnage, in which the antihero fought serial killer Cletus Kasady, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which Brock was briefly transported to the MCU through the multiverse.
