It’s very easy to solely focus on the fact that “Venom: The Last Dance” (Sony), the final film in the Marvel trilogy, starring Tom Hardy, underperformed this weekend with a $51M domestic intake, but it is worth mentioning that, spurred by China’s obsession with the character, it actually ended up grossing a healthy $175M worldwide this weekend.
The real big story, to my eyes at least, is the significant overperformance of specialized titles timed for awards season, led by the debut of Edward Berger’s “Conclave” (Focus), The Vatican thriller opened in 1,753 theaters, and racked up $7M over the weekend; that’s good enough to finish at #3, just slightly ahead of “The Wild Robot.”
More remarkably, Sean Baker’s “Anora” (Neon), which is only playing in 34 theaters, and coming off the year’s best platform debut, earned a $25,000-per-theater take, finishing at #8 with $867K in receipts. Much like “Conclave,” Baker’s film is being driven by festival buzz, strong reviews, and general public interest. It’s set to expand nationwide on November 8.
Meanwhile, A24’s “We Live in Time,” which cost only $10M to produce, continues its big theatrical swing, earning $4.8M (#5) through the weekend, in 2900+ theaters, for a total domestic gross of $12M. The performance of these three films is good news for smart, adult-oriented cinema, which hasn’t been getting much attention from the moviegoing public in the pandemic era. We need more successful original films, otherwise Hollywood will continue to only greenlight IP claptrap.
Jeremy Saulnier’s mysterious A24 project, formerly “October,” still has no release date. You’d think, given that it has been in post-production for almost a year now.