Janice R. Andrews
Sony’s superhero franchise continues its market dominance as “Venom: The Last Dance” claims the top spot for a second consecutive weekend, collecting $26.1 million. Tom Hardy’s latest outing as the symbiote anti-hero has now amassed over $90 million domestically and surpassed $300 million worldwide, though showing a moderate 49% decline from its opening weekend.
The week’s highest-profile new release, “Here,” which reunited the “Forrest Gump” team of Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and director Robert Zemeckis, opened to a disappointing $5 million across 2,600+ theaters. Critics have been less than enthusiastic about the experimental film, which currently holds a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In more positive news, “The Wild Robot” from Universal and Illumination demonstrated remarkable staying power, securing second place with $7.6 million. The animated feature actually saw an 11% increase in its sixth week, bringing its total earnings to $121 million domestically and $269 million globally.
Horror fans continued to support “Smile 2,” which earned $6.8 million for third place, while the papal drama “Conclave” performed surprisingly well with $5.3 million in fourth place. The specialty box office saw strong performances from two Indian releases, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” and “Singham Again,” each earning approximately $2.1 million.
Notable limited releases included Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” which impressed with $60,000 per screen across four theaters. Meanwhile, several prestige films, including Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” and Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” opted not to report their earnings.
The complete top 10 for the weekend:
- “Venom: The Last Dance” ($26.1M)
- “The Wild Robot” ($7.6M)
- “Smile 2” ($6.8M)
- “Conclave” ($5.3M)
- “Here” ($5M)
- “We Live In Time” ($3.5M)
- “Terrifier 3” ($3.4M)
- “Singham Again” ($2.1M)
- “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” ($2.1M)
- “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” ($2.1M)
While individual successes are notable, overall box office numbers remain about 12% behind 2023’s figures. Industry analysts are looking to upcoming holiday releases like “Gladiator II” and “Wicked” to help close this gap as 2024 progresses.
