"Venom: The Last Dance" took a big ol' bite out of the box office, earning $175 million worldwide in its first weekend. Here's how it sunk its teeth into audiences.
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00:00Venom The Last Dance took a big ol' bite out of the box office, earning $175 million worldwide
00:07in its first weekend.
00:08Here's how it sunk its teeth into audiences.
00:11The third Venom movie actually turned out to be a bit of a disappointment domestically,
00:15making just $51 million stateside.
00:18But the movie absolutely crushed it outside the U.S., earning $124 million internationally,
00:24reportedly making it the third-biggest American movie opening of 2024 in those countries,
00:29only Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine have better foreign launches in those same
00:33markets.
00:34That included especially massive debuts in Mexico, Korea, and India.
00:38The Last Dance also thrived on IMAX screens in international territories, securing the
00:42largest international IMAX debut ever in October and becoming the third-biggest IMAX overseas
00:48debut in Sony's history.
00:50The movie also made a huge splash in China, pulling down $45.9 million there in its first
00:55five days of release.
00:57That makes it the second-biggest American release there this year, after Godzilla Kong,
01:01The New Empire.
01:02After pulling in massive bank the decade prior, American films have been struggling in China
01:06in the 2020s.
01:08Audiences in China seem to favor homegrown releases now, and The Last Dance is actually
01:12already the highest-grossing American superhero film in the country since 2019.
01:17That fact is even more amazing when you consider that Venom Let There Be Carnage wasn't even
01:21released in Chinese theaters back in 2021.
01:25From the title on down, the third solo Venom movie was very insistent on emphasizing it
01:29was a send-off for Eddie Brock and Venom.
01:32Every aspect of the movie's promotional push lingered on this notion, right down to poster
01:36taglines like, "'Til death do they part," or, "'Witness the epic conclusion.'"
01:41Hammering the angle home was an immediate way to differentiate The Last Dance from the
01:44two previous Venom movies, and it also gave this installment a sense of finality that
01:49many other comic book movies no longer have.
01:51Eddie, I'm with you to the end."
01:55Modern entries in this subgenre typically inhabit large multimedia ecosystems full of
01:59future movie and TV plans stretching on into the next decade.
02:03Venom The Last Dance, meanwhile, tried to carve out an identity heavily reliant on the
02:07notion that this was the end of the road for an era of Venom on the big screen.
02:11Granted, such a prolific and lucrative character won't be gone forever.
02:14Tom Hardy wasn't the first man to play Eddie Brock, and he certainly won't be the last.
02:18For now, though, Venom The Last Dance promised resolution where other comic book movie promotional
02:23pushes only hinted at future sequels.
02:26October 2024 was supposed to belong to Joker Foley Ado.
02:30As late as just one month before its release, the Todd Phillips-directed sequel was tracking
02:34to make more than $100 million in its opening weekend, without breaking a sweat.
02:39Because of that impending release, Hollywood studios cleared the month of other major releases
02:43that could have been squashed by the newest Joker movie.
02:46How about you, Arthur?
02:49Do you still think you're a star?
02:50But the second Joker flick bombed at the box office, sending the theatrical feature landscape
02:55spiraling.
02:56Suddenly, the month kicked off with a massive box office dud, and nothing to help compensate
03:00for its losses.
03:01Extremely gory horror sequels Terrorfire 3 and Smile 2 could only do so much to pick
03:06up the slack.
03:07Into this domain entered Venom The Last Dance over the month's final weekend.
03:11The losses incurred by Joker 2 were a mild gain for The Last Dance, which suddenly didn't
03:15have to contend with another gargantuan comic book adaptation hogging the market.
03:20Granted, The Last Dance still underwhelmed domestically even with Joker out of the way,
03:24but the lack of another box office titan undoubtedly freed up The Last Dance to easily take the
03:29top box office spot around the globe.
03:31With October turning out to be a bit of a theatrical black hole, The Last Dance reaped
03:35big rewards.
03:37After COVID shut down theaters in March 2020, box office hits driven largely by older audiences
03:42have been hard to come by.
03:44One or two have slipped through the cracks, but for the most part, movies skewing towards
03:47the over-45 crowd have resulted in box office bombs like Horizon, An American Saga, Chapter
03:531.
03:54Unsurprisingly, Venom The Last Dance was another domestic box office chart-topper that skewed
03:58extremely young in its opening weekend.
04:01Seventy-three percent of its audience over its first three days of release was under
04:05the age of 35, while folks between the age of 25 and 34 made it roughly a third of its
04:10entire opening weekend.
04:12None of that is very surprising, given that this was a PG-13 Venom title with a weird
04:16comedy streak.
04:17Not exactly a recipe for luring in the Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris crowd.
04:21We're bad people.
04:23Damn we are!
04:24Venom The Last Dance proved once again how integral younger viewers are to keeping movies
04:28afloat.
04:29Without those ticket buyers under 35, The Last Dance would have been in much more serious
04:33trouble at the domestic box office.
04:35Over the past year or so, movies like Taylor Swift The Erased Tour, Five Nights at Freddy's,
04:40and Challengers flourished by channeling vibes that people under 30 could connect to.
04:44In the post-COVID theatrical landscape, youth-skewing movies are king, and Venom The Last Dance
04:49had no trouble sitting on that throne.
04:52Some hardy can bring in the crowds, which no doubt gave Venom The Last Dance a huge
04:56boost.
04:57For proof, look no further than the multiple films in his career that have crossed $500
05:01million worldwide.
05:02Sure, that includes typical comic book movie blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises and
05:07the first two Venom installments, but he's also raked in the cash in adult dramas like
05:15The Revenant and Dunkirk, not to mention Christopher Nolan's original smash hit Inception.
05:20Because of that financial hot streak, Hardy's got more box office reliability than many
05:24other leading men linked solely with superhero movie roles.
05:27It may seem like a given that a big star translates to big ticket sales, but as a counterpoint,
05:32just look at Chris Hemsworth.
05:34Despite being a great actor, outside of the Thor and Avengers movies, a ton of his films
05:38have bombed at the box office.
05:40Hardy, meanwhile, has consistently delivered hits beyond his Venom exploits.
05:43Now, before you bother telling me it's impossible to do this…
05:47No, it's perfectly possible, it's just bloody difficult.
05:49That reputation can't transform every Hardy movie into a box office phenomenon, but it
05:53did help Venom The Last Dance soar at the international box office.
05:58As joker Foliar Ducan attests, following up lucrative blockbusters from years past is
06:02not a one-way ticket to box office success.
06:05The Marvels and Terminator Dark Fate are also prime examples that past franchise success
06:09doesn't guarantee a good theater run.
06:11However, Venom The Last Dance certainly got a boost from what its predecessors accomplished.
06:16The first two Venom titles managed to crack a combined $1.3 billion worldwide.
06:21Venom Let There Be Carnage even topped $500 million worldwide as one of the first superhero
06:25movies to open after COVID-19 shut down theaters.
06:28Congratulations to the happy couple, we are leaving.
06:32Shoo, even Topher Grace's version of the antihero who helped the much-maligned Spider-Man 3
06:37stick an $891 million worldwide landing.
06:41No matter what the setting, Venom is a popular character.
06:43With that legacy at its back, Venom The Last Dance dropped into theaters with lots of pre-existing
06:48audience familiarity.
06:49Plus, The Last Dance promised an ending to this weird trilogy, so everyone who'd already
06:53shelled out a billion-plus dollars probably wanted some closure.
06:57Add in the mid-credits teases suggesting crossovers with Venom and Tom Holland's Spider-Man,
07:01and Venom The Last Dance had far more anticipation and moviegoer goodwill to work with than many
07:06other 2024 tentpole sequels.
07:09Venom The Last Dance was originally set up to open on July 12th, 2024.
07:13July has always been a popular month for Spider-Man features, but Venom is a darker, more sinister
07:18character than the web-slinger.
07:19The previous two Venom titles had October releases, and it really seems like that's
07:23the month where the character thrives.
07:25Fortunately for Eddie Brock and the gang, the dual 2023 strikes ensured that The Last
07:29Dance could never hit that original July date.
07:32Sony would later delay The Last Dance to fall 2024, eventually settling on October 25th
07:37as the launchpad for this title.
07:39That meant the final Venom installment would go out the weekend before Halloween, pretty
07:42much the perfect time for a horror-infused action blockbuster.
07:48This date also gave Venom The Last Dance some distance from summer 2024 juggernauts like
07:53Deadpool and Wolverine, and Inside Out, too.
07:55Bowing in late October 2024 was not the original plan for The Last Dance, but it was critical
08:00for its opening weekend haul.
08:03Comic book movies in the 2020s have often proved impenetrable for general audiences
08:07to latch onto.
08:08MCU titles like Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and the Marvels have increasingly
08:13relied on other Marvel properties to be understood, while DC's The Flash featured central plotlines
08:18touching on older films like Man of Steel and even 1989's Batman.
08:22Morbius even featured a post-credits scene with Michael Keaton as the Vulture, setting
08:27up a Sinister Six movie that may or may not actually happen.
08:30I'm still figuring this place out, but I think a bunch of guys like us should team up.
08:35We could do some good.
08:37Intriguing.
08:38Bucking this trend, Venom The Last Dance forgoes any larger connections to non-Venom comic
08:43book movies.
08:44Save for some opening lines by Eddie Brock about a purple guy who loves stones, The Last
08:48Dance is a deeply standalone enterprise.
08:50Anyone scouring the movie for subtle Morbius and Man on Web connections will leave the
08:54theater sorely disappointed.
08:56This approach had multiple advantages for The Last Dance.
08:59For one thing, the movie was far more accessible to anyone who walked into the theater.
09:03For another, The Last Dance avoided getting connected to the dreadful critical reputations
09:07of Morbius and Man on Web.
09:09Bypassing grand comic book movie confusion was a gift for Venom The Last Dance, one that's
09:14increasingly rare for the Marvel multiverse.
09:17Out of the eight biggest movies released in the United States by the Sony-owned studio
09:21Columbia Pictures, all but one are based on Marvel Comics characters.
09:24Only Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle stands out among the crop of Spider-Man entries.
09:28Starting with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002, Marvel adaptations have proven instrumental
09:33to the success of Columbia Pictures, and Sony as a whole.
09:37Even lesser-grossing titles like Ghost Rider drummed up respectable business.
09:41Despite more recent flops like Man on Web and Morbius, Sony has demonstrated that it's
09:45capable of doing Marvel stories justice.
09:47With over two decades of experience releasing Marvel movies, Sony's marketing team had no
09:52trouble getting Venom The Last Dance to respectable worldwide opening weekend numbers.
09:56While it couldn't turn something like Morbius into the next Guardians of the Galaxy, the
10:00company's Marvel track record still managed to keep momentum rolling for an entire Venom
10:04trilogy, without Spider-Man actually showing up in the flesh.
10:08In its Thursday domestic box office numbers alone, Venom The Last Dance grossed a whopping
10:13$8.5 million.
10:15While less than the Thursday night hauls of the two previous Venom installments, this
10:18wasn't a sharp decrease in earnings.
10:20In fact, it immediately put The Last Dance on track for a promising opening weekend.
10:24Over its entire domestic weekend, Venom The Last Dance grossed $51 million, so its Thursday
10:30showing accounted for about 17 percent of that opening weekend haul.
10:34That means that the diehard fans who couldn't wait a single day longer played an important
10:38role in the positive narrative about the movie's earnings.
10:41Venom lovers showed the appreciation for the symbiote in impressive numbers, and the opening
10:45day gross of The Last Dance ultimately soared to $21 million.
10:49Despite the big opening weekend, though, the momentum hasn't lasted, with data suggesting
10:53that the film could struggle in subsequent weeks.
10:55Still, it's impossible to deny that the threequel got an impressive start, and that's all thanks
11:00to Venom's most passionate supporters.