Box Office Update: Venom 3 opening below expectations

The box office doldrums continue. There hasn’t been a huge hit since Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice opened in early September, and Hollywood’s hopes that Venom: The Last Dance would be a blockbuster aren’t amounting to much. According to Deadline, the superhero threequel is set to open in the low $50-million range after a $21 million Friday. That’s below more optimistic box office projections but pretty much right in line with the $50 million we predicted earlier this week.

As expected, Smile 2 should hit second place, with over $10 million, but the 52% drop, while not bad for a horror sequel, is far higher than the mere 18% the original fell on its second weekend in 2022. Its final gross will likely come in far under the $105 million the original made, but it should still turn a profit for Paramount. The Wild Robot and Terrifier 3 are making the race for third place pretty tight, with each grossing in the $5.5 – 6 million range. Focus Features’s Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes (who we interviewed yesterday), should open north of $5 million, which isn’t bad for an adult drama these days.

So, what’s going on with Venom’s box office? One thing studios may need to fess up to is that superhero fatigue is real. The massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine notwithstanding, studios have flooded the market with too many bad (or mediocre) superhero films, and audiences are no longer flocking to them the way they used to. Much is riding on the fate of Marvel’s next phase of films, as well as James Gunn’s Superman. The genre seems tired, as younger audiences seem to be sparking less to them nowadays. Perhaps it’s time for studios to think outside the box a little more and revisit genres they’ve all but abandoned, such as mid-level action movies, comedies and thrillers – all of which used to be the bread and butter of the theatrical experience.

What was the last great theatrical experience you had in theaters? Let us know in the comments.