Venom 3 to win weekend box office, second spot up for grabs



Venom: The Last Dance is set to win the North American box office for the second weekend in a row, according to a forecast by Boxoffice Pro.

Sony Pictures’ sci-fi action movie is projected to earn between between $17 million and $23 million at theaters across the U.S. and Canada after raking in $51 million on its debut a week ago.

Starring Tom Hardy (Venom, Mad Max: Fury Road), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, The Martian), and Juno Temple (Ted Lasso, Killer Joe), Venom: The Last Dance currently has an audience score of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, but a paltry 39% rating from more than 160 reviews by professional critics. It also has a less-than-stellar 6.2 rating on IMDb, while Digital Trends’ gave it only 1.5/5.

The movie’s official logline reads: “Eddie and Venom, on the run, face pursuit from both worlds. As circumstances tighten, they’re compelled to make a heart-wrenching choice that could mark the end of their symbiotic partnership.”

Check out the trailer below:

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE – Official Trailer (HD)

Eyeing second spot at this weekend’s domestic box office is a new movie starring Tom Hanks called Here.

Forecast to earn between $3 million and $7 million, Here is described as “a generational story about families and the special place they inhabit, sharing in love, loss, laughter, and life.” The movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis and is notable for its use of generative AI technology to face-swap and de-age the actors.

Also starring Robin Wright (Forrest Gump, Unbreakable) and Paul Bettany (WandaVision, A Beautiful Mind), Here hasn’t got off to a great start on Rotten Tomatoes, currently scoring only 38% from just over 50 reviews by professional critics (the Guardian’s 1/5 review calls it “a total horror show”), and just 5.6 on IMDb.

Watch the trailer below:

Here – Official Trailer (HD)

There’s a chance that Smile 2, on its third weekend, could nab second spot from Here, as the horror movie is forecast to take between $3 million and $5 million. Its ratings are certainly better, scoring 85% among professional critics and 81% among audience-goers on Rotten Tomatoes, and 7.2 on IMDb. Check out the trailer below:

Smile 2 | Official Trailer (2024 Movie) – Naomi Scott, Lukas Gage






Venom 3 Dances to a Decent Opening Weekend With Overseas Help


This weekend marks the end of an era and closes out the story of Sony’s Venom. Since 2018, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock has been a weirdo doing goofy-ass slapstick in ways that have upset some but delighted others, and Venom: The Last Dance promised to be a last ride of some kind for the duo before another iteration of Eddie (or another character entirely) puts on the alien skin suit. And audiences have responded to it with a bit of an “ehhhhhh…”

Per the Hollywood Reporter, the gooey threequel is looking at $51 million domestic box office at time of writing, well below the initial $65 projections placed upon it pre-release. For comparison, the first movie started at $80.2 million in North America (a then-record for October movies in 2018), and 2021’s Let There Be Carnage began at $90 million, impressive back then because of the pandemic. The international audience has come in clutchit’s apparently doing very well outside North America, and expected to pull in $124 million for a reported global total of $175 million.

Last Dance opened to negative reviews and spotty word of mouth, and it probably doesn’t help some folks are getting their Halloween party on. Still, it took the top spot for the weekend, happily knocking Smile 2 down to second place; the horror sequel made another $10.3 million domestically and $12.5 million overseas, bringing its global total to $83.7 million. And speaking of sequels to scary movies, Variety reports Terrifier 3 is pegged to make another $4.5 million and end the weekend at $44 million, triple the combined grosses of its predecessors.

Venom basically has next weekend all to himself, as far as big genre movies are concerned. Things truly kick in on week two with A24’s religious horror flick Heretic and the post-apocalyptic flick Elevation on November 8. The following weekends see the action Christmas flick Red One (November 15), Gladiator II and Wicked: Part I (November 22), and Moana 2 (November 27).

Got thoughts on Venom: The Last Dance? Let us know in the comments below.

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