After a pretty underwhelming start at the North American box office, Sony’s Venom: The Last Dance, surprised everyone this weekend by posting a terrific hold. The estimated $26.1 weekend was a lot higher than we predicted. The 49% drop is unusual for a superhero film. The first Venom dropped 56% in week 2, while the sequel plunged 65%. Even Deadpool & Wolverine – the most liked superhero movie in years – fell 54% in its second weekend, which was considered a decent hold.

So what’s going on here? Part of it may be that the World Series might have kept audiences away last weekend. With a U.S. election happening on Tuesday, people might have yearned for a little escapism, allowing the film to make up for last weekend’s shortfall. With a $90 million gross, it’s unlikely to cross the double-century mark its predecessors did, but with very little in the way of competition next weekend, a finish north of $150 million isn’t out of the question.

Meanwhile, second place went to Dreamworks’s The Wild Robot, which has turned out to be a sleeper hit, with the $7.55 million haul (up 11% from last weekend) contributing to a $121 million domestic total. Smile 2 was a distant third, with $6.8 million and a $52.6 million total gross. While it will fall far short of the $105 million made by the first film, it should still turn a nice profit for the studio, allowing for more sequels (whether or not they should is something we dug into here). 

Focus Features has a word-of-mouth hit with Conclave, which fell a modest 20% in week 2 for a $5.3 million weekend and a total north of $14 million. With it likely to do well during awards season, there’s a good chance word of mouth will prop this up for a solid run (although if it drops too early on PVOD, it might shoot long-term box office prospects in the foot a bit).

The Robert Zemeckis movie, Here, wound up doing awful business this weekend, with a $5 million weekend. The CinemaScore is B minus, proving audiences aren’t enjoying this Tom Hanks/ Robin Wright re-team with their Forrest Gump director. A24 got themselves a nice word-of-mouth hit with We Live in Time, which fell a modest 28% this weekend, with a $3.47 weekend and a gross north of $17 million. It may well make it to $30 million if couples keep turning out to see this on date night. 

Meanwhile, possibly the year’s most profitable movie, Terrifier 3, earned $3.2 million towards a $50 million total gross. Two Bollywood movies took up eighth and ninth place, with Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again both making over $2 million apiece. Finally, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice rounded out the top 10, with a $2.08 million weekend and a $292 million gross.

Interestingly, Deadline reports that Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2, despite being dumped by Warner Bros, is far exceeding expectations, with an estimated $275k weekend on only thirty screens. If true, that would give it one of the highest per-screen averages on the chart this weekend. Considering his amazing track record, the studio should have shown a little more faith in ol’Clint.

Next weekend should allow Venom: The Last Dance to eke out another victory, with A24’s Heretic the only competition.

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