.png)
1 month ago
45 ARTICLE AD
FRIDAY UPDATE AFTER EXCLUSIVE: Sony/Marvel’s Venom The Last Dance is coming in at $8.5M in previews. There was a feeling the third Venom would be slightly higher in previews, and here it is. As we told you last night, that beats the $7.6M previews of Dwayne Johnson’s DC Black Adam and the $7.5M of Fast X.
The projected global weekend is now at $180M which will be 5% higher than the global start of Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($171.6 million); this despite an expected domestic drop in the mid $60M, the lowest of any Venoms.
The threequel gets 3 1/2 stars on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak which isn’t far from the original 2018 movie and the 2021 sequel’s four stars. Parents and kids under 12 gave the movie 5 stars. Slightly more dads went last night at 53%, but moms got pulled into this Tom Hardy movie, too, at 47%.
General audiences were men 65% on the Kelly Marcel feature directorial debut with 18-34 at 66%. Overall Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 77%.
Meanwhile, Focus Features’ 93% certified fresh critically acclaimed Vatican thriller Conclave made $500K in collections at 1,500 theaters from previews that began at 2PM. Thursday night audiences gave the Ralph Fiennes film 3 1/2 stars on PostTrak and a 57% definite recommend. Mostly men attended last night at 62%. By the way, that’s the same amount of cash that We Live in Time made last Thursday from its second step platform expansion. Outlook for Conclave is $4M-$6M. CAA Media Finance was the sales rep on Conclave.
A24’s wide break of We Live in Time in weekend 3 landed on PostTrak with 4 1/2 stars, 83% positive, 63% definite recommend off 61% females. In regular grosses, not including last night’s wide previews, the Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh Studio Canal financed feature drew an estimated $516K Thursday
EXCLUSIVE: Currently we hear that Sony/Marvel’s Venom: The Last Dance is eyeing around $8M in previews tonight, maybe more by the morning. Showtimes began at 2PM in U.S. Canada at 3,500 locations.
At that figure, there’s a path to a $65M opening, which we mentioned would rep the lowest start for the trilogy stateside after owning the third (2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage at $90M) and fourth best (2018’s Venom) openings for October. Yes, we expect more from superhero threequels, but this is Venom and the franchise always reaped significantly more abroad (anywhere from 60% to 75%) than domestic. Hence, the global number means more to the studio to make good on that $120M production cost before marketing spend.
Comps: 2022’s Black Adam saw $7.6M in previews before making $26.6M on its Friday and $67M for the weekend. There’s another similar comp in 2023’s Fast X which had a $7.5M Thursday night, $28M Friday and $67M opening.
Recently Warner Bros’ Joker: Folie a Deux posted $7M previews before falling apart to a $37.6M opening — however that movie was sold under false pretenses to the fanboys, hence the D CinemaScore because they weren’t expecting to be knocked in the head by a musical. At least here with Last Dance, they’re getting what they paid for here in a zany, loopy Tom Hardy Venom movie.
Reviews are pretty bad for Venom: The Last Dance at 36% on Rotten Tomatoes — but they’re not the worst. That belongs to the first Venom at 30%. There was some improvement among film critics on part two at 57%. Both Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage earned B+ CinemaScores, which is healthy enough to make this also-ran anti-hero a tentpole.
Sony didn’t respond for comment on our industry projections tonight.
Venom: The Last Dance, directed by the franchise’s co-scribe Kelly Marcel in her behind the camera debut, is booked at 4,125 theaters.
Also opening this weekend is Focus Features Edward Berger directed Vatican thriller, Conclave, and A24’s We Live in Time, which is going super wide at 2,000 theaters in its third frame.
