Box Office Report for the Week of November 3

Before Wicked and Gladiator II (sorry, never calling it Glicked or Wickedator) obliterate the box office in a few weeks from now, with Moana 2 then joining in on the party, we’ve got a fairly slow weekend at the cinemas this week. Venom: The Last Dance is holding surprisingly strong, despite negative reviews, with a $26.1 million tally in its second week (a 49% drop!). This has led to a total global value of $317 million and has officially become a commercial success.

Perhaps American audiences weren’t enthused at yet another poorly-made Sony Marvel movie (who can blame them?), but the international market were more gung-ho at another adventure with Tom Hardy‘s Eddie Brock and his symbiote best friend. It’s only because of their willingness to see it that the film became one of the most profitable superhero films of the year, after Joker: Folie à Deux crashed and burned earlier last month.

Meanwhile, Robert Zemeckis‘ Here did not do very well in its opening weekend, petering out with a meager $5 million tally. With a limited marketing campaign (despite an awards push from Sony) and controversial uses of generative artificial intelligence, the writing was on the wall that people wished to be anywhere else but here, in a cinema, watching this movie.

Zemeckis seemingly wanted to recapture the same Oscar-winning success he had with Forrest Gump, reteaming with screenwriter Eric Roth, cinematographer Don Burgess, composer Alan Silvestri, and, of course, stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. However, you can’t capture the same feeling, especially when you employ garish technologies constantly pushed back and rejected by the masses. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to de-age and face-swap Hanks and Wright using generative AI is likely kicking themselves right now.

As it is Diwali, two major Indian productions hit American screens, with the latest installment of the Cop Universe in Singham Again, and the third entry in the Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise. While reviews for the Rohit Shetty actioner weren’t so hot, it made significantly more than Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 in fewer venues, with a per-theater average of $2,798. Regardless of what you think of the quality of Shetty’s pictures (they’ve certainly dwindled, although this one is better than his most recent productions, notably Indian Police Force), they still draw in crowds. The highly-anticipated return of Ajay Devgn as Bajirao Singham, ten years after Singham Returns, was not to be missed.

Here is the full list of the top ten movies of the weekend:

1. Venom: The Last Dance (Sony/Marvel): $26.1M (-49%) – 4,131 theatres
2. The Wild Robot (Universal): $7.6M (+11%) – 3,231 theatres
3. Smile 2 (Paramount): $6.8M (-29%) – 3,235 theatres
4. Conclave (Universal): $5.3M (-20%) – 1,796 theatres
5. Here (Sony): $5.0M – 2,647 theatres
6. We Live in Time (A24): $3.5M (-28%) – 2,964 theatres
7. Terrifier 3 (Iconic Events): $3.4M (-28%) – 2,357 theatres
8. Singham Again (Moviegoers Entertainment Ltd): $2.1M – 749 theatres
9. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros): $2.0M (-33%) – 2,251 theatres
10. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (Shree International): $2.0M – 754 theatres

Source: Comscore