For once, the weekend box office is performing right in line with what we predicted earlier this week, with Venom: The Last Dance leading the weekend with $14 million. While the third entry in Marvel’s Spider-Verse franchise has a very underwhelming opening, it’s shown some surprising staying power at the box office. While it will be the lowest-grossing entry into the franchise (by quite a bit), it’s also far from the disaster some recent superhero films have proven to be. This weekend’s total will push it past $110 million, and it should have another strong weekend coming up, with only Dwayne Johnson’s critically panned Red One in its way. Typically, Veteran’s Day weekend is a bigger deal for new releases, but given the recent election, studios opted for a quieter weekend for new releases.

The battle for second place is proving to be interesting in that two films about faith (albeit done very differently) are in a pitched battle. So far, A24’s horror entry, Heretic, seems to have the edge, with it on track for a $10.5 million weekend. Lionsgate & Kingdom Story’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which is a faith-based film based on the classic book, is on track for third place. Deadline has it coming in at $10 million, but given how family-friendly it is, the matinees could propel it to a win over Heretic. Also worth noting is the CinemaScore ratings. Heretic has a pretty lousy C rating (which isn’t all that unusual for a horror flick), while Best Christmas Pageant Ever has a really good A rating. So word of mouth could help propel it to second place. 

Sean Baker’s Anora also expands this weekend and should finally crack the top 10 after proving to be an arthouse hit. It should hit seventh place with $2.5 million. 

What are you seeing this weekend? Let us know in the comments. 

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