“Venom: The Last Dance1 at the box office, but the comic book movie fell well short of expectations.

Sony’s third and final entry in the Tom Hardy-led Marvel anti-hero series opened with a muted $51 million from 4,125 North American theaters. Rival studios are predicting the final weekend figure will be under $50 million. Those ticket sales are well behind $65 million estimates and far lower than the previous two installments of 2018’s “Venom,” which opened to $80 million, and 2021’s “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which opened to a then-pandemic record $90. million.

Despite a soft start in North America, the “Spider-Man” spinoff is gaining support from international audiences. “Venom 3” feasted with $124 million overseas for a $175 million global debut.

“The Last Dance” cost $120 million to produce, not including worldwide marketing efforts. That’s much less than most superhero movies like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which cost more than $200 million each. But with theater owners keeping roughly half of ticket sales, the third “Venom” needs to stay on the big screen beyond its premiere to justify that price tag. After much bigger debuts, the first “Venom” reached $856 million worldwide, while “Let There Be Carnage” surpassed $500 million worldwide.

This series has never been a critical darling, and the final episode is no exception, with a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes. But fans may also be tired of the series, as viewers gave the film a “B-” rating on CinemaScore, the lowest rating in the trilogy. Kelly Marcel, who wrote the first two films, directed the PG-13 trippy feature, which stars Hardy as investigative journalist Eddie Brock and his unwitting sidekick and parasite Venom, both on the run from their own worlds.

“This was a step back in terms of content, and it was painfully obvious to the audience from the trailers alone,” says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “Superhero fans want the stakes to be ratcheted up with each successive episode; But that didn’t happen in ‘The Last Dance.'”

Overall box office returns remain 11.4% behind the same point in 2023 and 26.8% behind 2019. Most of the major studios didn’t want to release an election-related movie, so the only movie on the calendar in the coming weeks is Sony’s “Here is the widely underrated film directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring digitally aged versions of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright (Nov. 1) a drama and Amazon’s Christmas comedy “Red One” (Nov. 15), starring Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson as Santa’s head of security. Otherwise, there won’t be another tentpole to save the cinema’s course until “Gladiator 2” and “Wicked” on Nov. 22, followed by “Moana 2” on Nov. 27.

“Going to the movies is returning to its submerged state. ‘Joker 2’ left a void, and ‘Venom 3’ does not fill that void,” says David A. Gross, director of film consultancy Franchise Entertainment Research. “There’s very little momentum right now.”

To that end, “Joker: Folie à Deux” dropped to No. 12 in its fourth weekend, collecting a dismal $600,000 from 1,243 venues. Sequel to 2019’s billion-dollar hit “Joker” a box office disaster It generated $57.8 million domestically and $201.1 million worldwide. By comparison, the original “Joker” spent five weeks in the top two and took in $335 million domestically and $21.07 billion worldwide. Warner Bros.’ sequel, with a budget of $200 million, won’t even come close to those grosses and is poised to lose $150 million to $200 million at the theater.

Another new film, the Ralph Fiennes-led thriller “Conclave,” opened in No. 3, above expectations, with $6.5 million from 1,753 theaters. Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) directed “Conclave,” a tense Vatican-set drama about the election of a new pope that comes with secrets that could shake the foundation of the church. Focus Features has acquired domestic rights to the PG film, which has received solid reviews and hopes to find a place in the Oscar race. Audiences also liked “Conclave,” which received a “B+” from CinemaScore. Ticket buyers are mostly older men; 77 percent are over the age of 35 and 54 percent identify as male.

“This is a very good opening for an awards drama,” Gross says. “The Catholic church provides an endless amount of dramatic, cinematic material.”

At the domestic box office, Paramount’s thriller “Smile 2” came in second with $9.6 million, down 59% since its debut. The R-rated sequel to 2022’s “Smile,” which topped the box office last weekend, has grossed $40.7 million in North America and $83 million worldwide to date. It cost $28 million, and while it may not be as successful as the original, which earned $105 million in North America and $217 million worldwide, it will turn out to be profitable.

Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” fell to No. 4 with $6.2 million in its fifth weekend of release. The well-reviewed family film has managed to remain at the box office with minimal weekly declines, grossing $111 million domestically and $232 million worldwide so far.

A24’s sad romantic drama “We Live in Time” remained in fifth place with $4.8 million and reached 1,939 theaters. The film, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh as a young couple living in enviable circumstances, has grossed a solid $11.7 million to date.

Meanwhile, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora” cracked the top 10 with $867,142 from just 34 venues; This works out to $25,504 per location. Neon acquired the rights to the film at Cannes and will continue to expand the reach of “Anora,” a comedic look at an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, through the fall and into awards season.