It may only be halfway through its opening weekend, but Venom: The Last Dance is already falling short of its franchise’s standards at the box office.
The new comic book film brings Tom Hardy’s big-screen adventures as Eddie Brock to an end and was, therefore, marketed as a zany and climactic final outing for the superhero genre’s quirkiest duo. Unfortunately, while certain elements of the film’s early trailers — like the Venom-ized horse that Eddie and his symbiote pal use at one point to travel a bit more quickly — went viral online, it doesn’t seem like moviegoers feel as compelled to seek out Venom: The Last Dance like they did its two predecessors.
According to Variety, Venom: The Last Dance has so far earned only $22 million stateside from all of its Friday and preview screenings. That means the film is currently en route to falling shy of its initial box office projections, which placed its opening weekend total around $65 million. The movie’s first-day domestic gross is also lower than the $32 million that Venom accrued in the same amount of time in 2018 and the $37 million that 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage raked in across its preview and initial Friday screenings.
The fact that Sony’s third — and potentially final — Venom film is on track to perform worse financially than its two parent movies may not come as much of a surprise to those who have been keeping up with The Last Dance. The film received largely negative reviews prior to its theatrical debut, and multiple critics dinged the sequel for not focusing enough on the wacky, fun relationship between Hardy’s Eddie and his immature alien pal. The first two Venom movies didn’t receive overwhelmingly positive reviews, either, but The Last Dance‘s current audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is also lower than those of its predecessors.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen how close Venom: The Last Dance comes to matching its predecessors’ overall $856 million and $506 million respective worldwide box office totals. Both Venom and Let There Be Carnage notably earned more outside of the U.S. than they did domestically, and it’s possible The Last Dance will continue that franchise trend and end up doing better than its current earnings suggest. Only time will tell.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.