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After a sluggish start, Venom: The Last Dance gained ground in its second weekend. The Sony comic book movie declined a franchise-low 49 percent to $26.1 million from 4,131 screens to win an overall quiet weekend heading into the hotly contested presidential race.
The final installment in the Venom trilogy has now earned $90 million domestically. Overseas, The Last Dance continued to pace well ahead of its domestic earnings — in keeping with the first two films in the franchise — grossing another $68.4 million for a foreign tally of $227 million and $317 million globally, which is narrowly ahead of Venom: Let There Be Carnage at the same point in their runs.
But what one had giveth, the other taketh away. Miramax and Sony’s adult drama Here — reuniting Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright — could only manage a fifth place finish with an estimated $5 million from 2,642 screens, in line with far-from-great expectations. Nor did the poorly reviewed film make up ground with moviegoers, who gave it a B- CinemaScore (that’s a poor grade for an adult drama with such a high-profile cast). The movie skewed incredibly older, with nearly half the audience over 55.
Miramax financed the film, which reportedly cost a net $45 million before marketing. Sony picked up domestic rights in exchange for a distribution fee. The story, which employs plenty of special effects to make its stars look younger and older, follows a couple — and their house — not only through the decades, but through the millennia.
The curiosity of the weekend was Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2, which is getting an awards qualifying run in theaters before it goes directly to Max. It was always intended streaming, at least in the U.S., and is the first of Eastwood’s films to not get a traditional theatrical release, prompting plenty of buzz.
Warners did not release grosses for the film in North America, but did report numbers from overseas, where Juror #2 took in $5 million from six markets where his movies have done especially well, such as France. The studios says the limited foreign release in a total of eight markets is designed to support the film’s upcoming debut on Max (no streaming date has been announced).
Among holdovers, DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s The Wild Robot is proving to be like a Energizer bunny. It held at No. 2 in its sixth weekend, and was actually up 11 percent. The family film earned another $76 million from 3,232 theaters for a domestic cume and $269 million globally.
Paramount and Temple Hill’s Smile 2 placed No. 3 in its third outing as it crossed the $100 million mark at the global box office. The pic fell 29 percent in North America to $6.8 million for a domestic tally of $52.6 million and $109.7 million (it is unusual for a horror film to travel so well overseas, where the sequel has grossed $57.1 million).
Focus Features’ Awards contender Conclave continued to impress, falling only 20 percent in its sophomore outing and moving up the top 10 chart to No. 4 with $5.3 million from 1,796 screens. Produced and financed by FilmNation and Indian Paintbrush, the Oscar hopeful has now earned a promising $15.2 million domestically.
A24’s awards player We Live in Time came in No. 6 in its third weekend with $3.5 million from 2,964 for a domestic tally of $17.7 million
Other films on the awards circuit are platforming more slowly. Neon’s acclaimed Anora earned $1.9 million as it expanded into a total of 253 theaters.Searchlight’s A Real Pain was anything but a pain in its opening in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film reported a per-theater location average of $60,000, the third best of the year so far (Anora is No. 1 in that regard).
Most Hollywood studios are holding back their bigger and more commercial titles until mid-November because of the Nov. 5 election. This applies to next weekend in particular, but it also impacted the marquee this weekend. The gap resulted in leaving room for alternative content. Three Indian films, for example, opened nationwide, with two landing in the top 10.