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FRIDAY PM: At this point in time, the spoils of this weekend go to Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance which is looking at a No. 1 take around $14M for the 3-day after a $3.6M Friday at 3,905 sites. That’s the first time ever that a Venom movie has held the top spot at the box office for three weekends running, and this one opened to the lowest in the franchise at $51M. As sources said last weekend about the holds that movies were experiencing post World Series “There’s nothing else out there.” Running total for the Tom Hardy starring, Kelly Marcel directed threequel is $112.8M by EOD Sunday.
In second is A24’s Hugh Grant horror movie Heretic which is seeing around $5M today, including last night’s $1.2M for what’s shaping up to be a $11M-$12M opening at 3,221 theaters. That’s at the top range of where exhibition forecasted the movie. The pic made its world premiere at TIFF and went on to play AFI. A24 made a negative pick-up of the movie from the pic’s producers for around $14M-$15M and sold foreign, keeping domestic.
Venom 3 has Imax and PLFs while Heretic has Dolby auditoriums.
Third place goes to Lionsgate and Kingdom Story’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever which is looking at $4.8M to $5.4M today (including previews of $2.8M) for a $8.5M-$12M opening at 3,020. The movie was shot for a net production cost of $10M with Canadian tax credits. Small share of foreign sales covering this largely domestic driven piece of IP. Lionsgate hopes for a $20M-$25M end game at the domestic box office. If the movie hits $10M, it will rep the second highest opening for Lionsgate YTD after Strangers – Chapter 1 which debuted to $11.8M back in May and finaled at $35.2M U.S./Canada.
The seventh weekend of DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Wild Robot at 3,051 sites is $5M, -33% after a $1.25M Friday for a running total by Sunday of $129.2M.
Fifth is Paramount’s fourth weekend of Smile 2 at 2,822 sites for a Friday of $1.4M, 3-day of $4.7M, -30% for a $60.2M cume by EOD Sunday.
Keep in mind that with schools off on Monday, Veterans Day, all these movies are going to see some lagniappe in theirs tills.
FRIDAY AM: A24’s Heretic, the R-rated horror movie from A Quiet Place scribes Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, began its journey this weekend with $1.2 million in previews last night that began at 7 p.m. That figure doesn’t include the Salt Lake City sneaks that recently occurred.
Heretic‘s Thursday number is $100,000 shy from the amount that A24’s Ari Aster horror pic Hereditary did back in summer 2018, but above the $1M that Universal’s Radio Silence horror movie Abigail did and the $725K that Lionsgate/Blumhouse’s Imaginary took in; Abigail opened to $10.2M back in April while Imaginary did $9.9M back in March.
Heretic is expected to open to $10M-$12M and could steal the No. 1 spot from Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance, which is entering its third frame.
The Hugh Grant-starring Heretic is 94% certified fresh with critics and received 3 stars from audiences last night. A24 acquired domestic on the movie.
Also starting off last night was Lionsgate/Kingdom Story’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which did $500K yesterday from previews that began at 4 p.m. All in with early access sneaks, the Dallas Jenkins feature take of the Barbara Robinson bestseller counts $2.8M, having grossed $2.3M in one day with early sneaks. NRG tracking the movie at $6M-$8M, with exhibition believing that number is higher.
Best Christmas Pageant Ever is 85% fresh with critics, 99% on the popcorn-meter, 4 1/2 stars with general audiences on PostTrak, 5 stars with parents, and 5 stars with kids under 12.
The rest of the week:
1.) Venom: The Last Dance (Sony) 4,131 theaters, Thu $1.6M (-3%), Wk $34.6M, Total $98.6M/Wk 2
As we told you earlier, the Kelly Marcel directed, Tom Hardy starring threequel is crossing $100M today.
2.) Wild Robot (Uni/DWA) 3,237 (-190) theaters Thu $481K (+5%), Wk $10.3M, Total $124.3M/Wk 6
3.) Smile 2 (Par) 3,235 (-389) theaters, Thu $610K (-2%), Wk $9.6M, Total $55.5M/Wk 3
4.) Conclave (Foc) 1,796 (+43) theaters, Thu $542K (-3%) Wk $7.46M , Total $17.3M/ Wk 2
5.) Here (Sony/Miramax) 2,647 theaters, Thu $411K (-9%) Wk $7M/Wk 1
