UPDATE: 2025-08-14 08:23 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN
Venom 3’s Weekend Projections Dip An Addition $1 Million
This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with up-to-date box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.
Venom: The Last Dancehas hit a record low for the franchise in its opening weekend. TheVenom: The Last Dancereleaseis set to close out the trilogy, which stars Tom Hardy as both Eddie Brock and the titular alien symbiote. It comes three years after 2021’sLet There Be Carnage, which in turn came out three years after the original movie’s premiere in 2018, kicking off Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, a franchise that is loosely linked to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and tells the stories of villains and antiheroes from the originalSpider-ManComics without featuring the hero himself.
PerDeadline, as of Saturday morning,Venom: The Last Danceis projected to take No. 1 at the domestic box office with a projected 3-day total of$51 millionin its opening weekend. Although it is topping the chart for the weekend,this marks a record low for the Tom Hardy franchise, as the first installment opened to $80.2 million in 2018 andLet There Be Carnagedebuted with an even better $90 million in spite of a pandemic-depressed 2021 box office. This new installment will fall short of both of those movies by tens of millions of dollars.
In spite of its diminishing returns,Venomhandily knockedSmile 2from its position at No. 1.Smile 2has fallen to No. 2 with $9.4 million, a 59% drop that is about par for a typical horror sequel, but this is a significant fall when compared to the smash hit 2022 original, which only fell 18% as word of mouth continued to spread. It is sandwiched between two new releases, as the buzzyRalph Fiennes dramaConclavemade a strong debut with $6.5 million, tying for No. 3. See the full domestic Top 5 chart for the weekend below:
1
$51 million
$51 million (weekend 1)
2
$9.4 million
$40.7 million (weekend 2)
3
$6.5 million
$6.5 million (weekend 1)
~3
$111.3 million (weekend 5)
5
$4.8 million
$11.7 million (weekend 3)
It may take until Monday morning to learn whetherConclaveorThe Wild Robothave taken a slight edge to officially claim No. 3. Regardless,the DreamWorks animated movie has finally dropped from its long-held position at No. 2after three straight weeks. Another holdout is the Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield romanceWe Live in Time, which maintained its position at No. 5 for the second week in a row as it earned $4.8 million and crossed the $10 million domestic milestone.
With theWe Live in Timereleaseholding firm, two Halloween season titles have fled the chart to make room for the new releases. This includes the Tim Burton legacy sequelBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, which fell from No. 4 to No. 7 with $3.23 million bringing its cumulative domestic total to a whopping $288.7 million. Joining it just outside the Top 5 is the slasher sequelTerrifier 3, which dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 with $4.5 million and a cumulative $44.3 million domestic, which ismore than 20 times its scant $2 million budget.
What This Opening Weekend Means For Venom: The Last Dance
It Could Still Turn A Profit
While this opening weekend total sees the movie taking a major tumble from the financial highs of the original two installments, theVenom: The Last Dancebox officeis still in a reasonably safe place. It is currently projected to have a worldwide opening weekend of$175 million, which will set it on track to turn a profit. Because it cost $120 million, only slightly more thanLet There Be Carnage’s $110 million, there is still room for it to do reasonably well asits break-even point is likely somewhere around $300 million.
Typically, a movie needs to earn back two and a half times its budget in order to break even.
If it continues its current pace relative to the second movie’s overall worldwide total of $506.8 million, the new movie could very well surpass that break-even point and then some. However,it will be a more neck-and-neck race than in the past, potentially becauseVenom: The Last Dancereviewshave been grim, earning the movie a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, it is still looking much better than the non-VenomSony Spider-Man moviesMorbius(15%) andMadame Web(11%), which opened to $39 million and $15.3 million respectively.
Our Take On The Weekend Box Office
Venom 3 Could Hang Onto No. 1 For Another Weekend
WhileVenom: The Last Danceis suffering compared to the previous installments, it is still behaving something like a comic book movie, performing much better than October’s splashy DC flopJoker: Folie à Deux, which cost $200 million, opened to $37.7 million, and had a staggering, record-breaking 81.4% drop in its second weekend. Thisgives the Tom Hardy movie another shot at holding the No. 1 spot in its second weekend, as the only major title being released then is theRobert Zemeckis dramaHere, which is getting a relatively quiet rollout.
Venom: The Last Dance
Cast
Venom: The Last Dance is a film directed by an undisclosed director, featuring the character Venom in a thrilling narrative. The movie explores the alien symbiote’s latest challenges and transformations as it navigates through a world full of danger and new adversaries.
