Sony/Columbia’s “Venom: The Last Dance” will hold on to the top spot on the box office charts for one more weekend before the arrival of Amazon MGM’s “Red One” on Friday, while A24’s “Heretic” and Lionsgate’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” got off to solid starts as low-budget genre films.
“Venom 3” earned $16.2 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $114.8 million and $394 million worldwide. While still the lowest grossing “Venom” film, it will post a modest theatrical profit against its $120 million production budget.
“Heretic” and “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” are in a tight race for No. 2 with “Pageant” holding a narrow lead at $11.1 million over “Heretic” with $11 million even. It’s important to note, though, that the opening total for “Pageant” includes $2.2 million from last week’s one-day sneak preview screenings. Both films are set to turn an easy profit against their low budgets, which are reported to top out at $10 million.
For Lionsgate, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” snaps a streak of late summer/early autumn flops that contributed to a $163 million quarterly loss for the studio. Produced by Kingdom Story Company, “Pageant” has won over critics and audiences with an A on CinemaScore to go with an 89% critics and 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film will now look to leg out through the end of the year as a family-friendly, inspirational Christmas offering that will stand out even from the more action-filled “Red One.”
“Heretic” may have a more frontloaded run, as audiences were not as enthused about the provocative horror film starring Hugh Grant as a man who puts two Mormon missionaries through a deadly test. The film received a C+ on CinemaScore and a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 78%. The good news for “Heretic” is that its biggest competition will come from films already in theaters like “Terrifier 3,” so it is possible that more horror fans may discover it in the weeks ahead.
Universal/DreamWorks’ “The Wild Robot” is in fourth with $6.6 million in its seventh weekend, bringing its total to $130 million domestic and $292 million worldwide. Paramount’s “Smile 2” finishes the top 5 with $5 million for a four-weekend total of $60.5 million domestic and $123 million worldwide, lower than the first “Smile” but still profitable against a $28 million budget.
Outside the top 5, Focus Features’ “Conclave” continues to hold well in its third weekend, riding strong performance from major East Coast cities like New York and Philadelphia for a $4.1 million weekend total and a $21.5 million domestic cume.
Neon’s “Anora” expanded to 1,104 theaters this weekend after a strong run in limited release, but its momentum is starting to taper off with $2.45 million grossed this weekend, giving it a total of $7.2 million.
The biggest bust of the weekend is Sony/TriStar/Miramax’s “Here,” which after posting an anemic $5 million opening grossed just $2.4 million in its second weekend. Produced by Miramax on a $45 million budget, the Robert Zemeckis film has grossed just $9.5 million so far.
