It may only be halfway through its opening weekend, butVenom: The Last Danceis already falling short of its franchise’s standards at the box office.
The new comic book filmbrings Tom Hardy’s big-screen adventures as Eddie Brock to an end and was, therefore, marketed as a zany and climactic final outing for the superhero genre’s quirkiest duo. Unfortunately, while certain elements of the film’s early trailers — like the Venom-ized horse that Eddie and his symbiote pal use at one point to travel a bit more quickly — went viral online, it doesn’t seem like moviegoers feel as compelled to seek outVenom: The Last Dancelike they did its two predecessors.
According toVariety,Venom: The Last Dancehas so far earned only $22 million stateside from all of its Friday and preview screenings. That means the film is currently en route to falling shy of its initial box office projections, which placed its opening weekend total around $65 million. The movie’s first-day domestic gross is also lower than the $32 million thatVenomaccrued in the same amount of time in 2018 and the $37 million that 2021’sVenom: Let There Be Carnageraked in across its preview and initial Friday screenings.
The fact that Sony’s third — and potentially final — Venom film is on track to perform worse financially than its two parent movies may not come as much of a surprise to those who have been keeping up withThe Last Dance.The film received largely negative reviewsprior to its theatrical debut, andmultiple criticsdinged the sequel for not focusing enough on the wacky, fun relationship between Hardy’s Eddie and his immature alien pal. The first two Venom movies didn’t receive overwhelmingly positive reviews, either, butThe Last Dance‘s current audience score onRotten Tomatoesis also lower than those of its predecessors.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen how closeVenom: The Last Dancecomes to matching its predecessors’ overall $856 million and $506 million respective worldwide box office totals. BothVenomandLet There Be Carnagenotably earned more outside of the U.S. than they did domestically, and it’s possibleThe Last Dancewill continue that franchise trend and end up doing better than its current earnings suggest. Only time will tell.
