Several major movies opened or continued their runs in theaters this past weekend. Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the latest film in the Venom franchise starring Tom Hardy, held onto the top spot at the box office for the second straight weekend. The superhero sequel brought in $26.1 million from Friday through Sunday, only a 49% drop from its opening numbers. This small decline demonstrates the movie’s continuing appeal with audiences.
Meanwhile, a new drama starring Tom Hanks faced a tough debut. The newest film from acclaimed director Robert Zemeckis, called Here, tells its story across different time periods using visual effects. However, moviegoers did not connect with it as strongly as hoped. In its first weekend in theaters, Here grossed only $5 million and finished in fifth place. Polls found that most of its audience was older than 55 years old.
Family movie The Wild Robot continued exceeding expectations now six weeks after release. The animated film from DreamWorks actually saw an 11% increase in earnings, making $7.6 million to take second place. Worldwide it has made $269 million so far showing it has broad global appeal. Horror sequel Smile II took third place with $6.8 million. Overseas the film has been even more successful, pushing its worldwide total above $109.7 million.
Awards contender Conclave dropped only 20% in its second weekend, earning $5.3 million and claiming fourth place. Produced by FilmNation and Indian Paintbrush, it has now made $15.2 million domestically positioning itself as a potential Oscar contender. Two specialty films also expanded their releases successfully. Neon’s acclaimed drama Anora grossed $1.9 million in 253 theaters, while Searchlight’s comedy A Real Pain averaged an impressive $60,000 per screen in just 4 locations in New York and Los Angeles.
