Sony/Columbia’s “Venom: The Last Dance” went unchallenged in its second weekend at the box office, staying atop the charts with a $26 million second weekend.
Despite having the lowest CinemaScore of the “Venom” trilogy, “The Last Dance” is holding its drop to just 49% from its $51 million opening weekend. It is still on pace to be the lowest grossing film in the series but will profit theatrically thanks to help from overseas grosses, including $70.6 million from China, as the film now has a $317 million worldwide total.
Domestically, where the film has a $90 million total, “Venom 3” has one more weekend without significant competition before the arrival of Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II,” which are expected to combine for more than $150 million in North American grosses on their opening weekend.
More disappointing news for Sony is that TriStar/Miramax’s “Here” is going nowhere with a $5 million opening from 2,647 locations. Sony and TriStar are handling distribution on the Miramax production, which carries a $45 million budget.
“Here” marks Robert Zemeckis’ reunion with “Forrest Gump” stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, but the film hasn’t received strong word-of-mouth with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 36% critics and 57% audience.
Among holdovers, Universal/DreamWorks’ “The Wild Robot” continues its remarkable run with $7.5 million in its sixth weekend, giving it a domestic total of $121 million.
Universal released the acclaimed animated film on premium video on-demand at the end of its third weekend as part of its windowing deal with major theater chains, having maintained for years that well-received films can perform well theatrically even when available on home platforms at a premium price. “The Wild Robot” is showing that with $37 million grossed after its third weekend in North America, with a global total of $269 million against a $75 million budget.
Paramount’s “Smile 2” is in third with $6.8 million, crossing the $100 million global mark against a $28 million budget with $109.7 million after three weekends. In fourth is Focus Features’ “Conclave,” which is legging out very well with $5.3 million from 1,793 theaters this weekend after opening to $6.5 million, bringing its total to $15.2 million.
