Seems like audiences were not quite symbiotic with Venom 3 aka Venom: The Last Dance this weekend. The threequel reached a franchise low with $51 million at the domestic box office, including Thursday previews.
That’s compared to an $80 million opening for Venom in 2018, and a $90 million opening for Venom: Let There Be Carnage in 2021. For what it’s worth, the first movie opened at the height of the superhero movie craze (aka the time when anyone would see anything). And the sequel was one of the first theatrical movies out of the gate after COVID closures. Still, this is a big step down for Venom 3 at the box office. And it certainly points to a general weakening in comic book-based movies, with the exception of events like Deadpool & Wolverine.
Basically, gone are the days when you can put any comic book-based movie in theaters and expect folks to come. If you put out a not-as-well-received film like Joker: Folie à Deux or Venom 3, chances are audiences are going to find something else to do with their time.
It’s not all bad news, though. Including international grosses, the movie may make $175 million this weekend. On a reported $120 million budget (though that doesn’t include promotion and advertising), it’s possible that Venom: The Last Dance may turn a profit for Sony, even with the weaker grosses than Let There Be Carnage. And that might be enough to keep the franchise gooping forward with some sort of Venom 4, despite — spoilers past this point — the death of Venom in the movie.
In fact, Sony seems to be preparing for that possibility. Star Tom Hardy and writer/director Kelly Marcel have been very clear about being done with Venom after this trilogy. There’s no Venom 4 in their future, as far as they’ve said publicly. However, the movie lays the seeds for future installments with the introduction of the god of the symbiotes, Knull (Andy Serkis), and several other symbiotes including Agony (Juno Temple). It’s likely if the series does continue it would be with — no insult — cheaper actors like Temple and CGI Serkis, to keep production costs down.
So yes, Venom 3 disappointed at the box office, particularly as tracking put it at a relatively low $65 million and it didn’t make even that. But Sony still has options if they want to drag this series out even further. They don’t have to, though. We don’t need Agony: The Encore after Venom: The Last Dance. And we definitely don’t need a bargain basement Avengers: Endgame mixing together characters from Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and Madame Web with non-Venom symbiotes to fight Knull, as fans have speculated. Maybe it’s best to end things here? Make The Last Dance the true last dance for the franchise, and go out on a… Well, not a high note. But a note.
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