Venom: The Last Dance ekes out third-weekend win in meager Veterans Day box office

Despite opening to less than stellar returns in its first weekend (the lowest of its franchise so far), Venom: The Last Dance is clinging onto the top spot at the box office for a third straight weekend—sort of like a symbiote, one could say. And it’s not just that the Sony threequel is a parasite; it’s a parasite that’s rapidly degrading. The Tom Hardy-led film retained its spot despite a 37% drop-off from last weekend, bringing in only $16 million to last week’s $25 million. One whack from a tentpole and this one will lose hold completely, which is the second thing that’s odd about this weekend’s numbers.

For some, the weekend isn’t over with Veterans Day falling on a Monday this year. You’d think studios would recognize the long weekend for the prime movie-going opportunity it is and schedule something major (it’s not their first rodeo, although they do act like it sometimes), but nope! The only new things under the sun this weekend are Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which is definitely feeling pretty jolly at number two, and A24’s Heretic, which actually did pretty good numbers to land in the third position. Per Deadline, at $11 million, the Hugh Grant-led horror is already doing better than Midsommar ($6.5 million), The Witch ($8.8 million), and MaXXXine ($6.7 million) in their respective openings, and is only 19% off Hereditary‘s initial $13.5 million. We’re sure the smell-o-vision gimmick gave it a little boost. 

Elsewhere in the top ten are more of the same things we’ve been seeing for weeks now. Previous second, third, and fourth place films The Wild Robot, Smile 2, and Conclave were bumped to four, five, and six by the two openings above, but retained their exact order. Anora bumped up a couple spots and Here fell down a few. Hopefully, next week will bring something to shake up the pot a bit. 

The full top ten, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, is below:

1. Venom: The Last Dance, $16,226,000
2. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, $11,100,000
3. Heretic, $11,016,055
4. The Wild Robot, $6,650,000
5. Smile 2, $5,000,000
6. Conclave, $4,101,000
7. Anora, $2,455,000
8. Here, $2,426,000
9. We Live In Time, $2,210,612
10. Terrifier 3, $1,470,354