“Venom: The Last Dance” is No. 1 at the box office, but the comic book movie fell significantly short of expectations.

The third and final entry in Sony’s Tom Hardy-led Marvel anti-hero series opened to a paltry $51 million from 4,125 North American theaters. Rival studios are projecting the final weekend number to be under $50 million. Those ticket sales are well behind projections of $65 million and well below the previous two installments of 2018’s “Venom,” which opened to $80 million, and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage ” of 2021, which opened a record $90 in the pandemic since then. million. Sony believes the World Series game between the Yankees and Dodgers kept people at home on Saturday and Sunday, however New York City and Los Angeles were the two biggest markets for “Venom 3.”

Despite a slow takeoff in North America, the third “Venom” is getting a boost from international audiences. The “Spider-Man” spinoff enjoyed $124 million overseas for a $175 million global start.

“The Last Dance” cost $120 million to produce, not including worldwide marketing efforts. That’s far less than most superhero movies like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which each cost more than $200 million. However, since theater owners get to keep about half of the ticket sales, the third “Venom” needs to stay on the big screen after its debut to justify that price. After much bigger releases, 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 latest installment is no exception, with a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, fans may also be tired of the franchise, as audience members gave the film a “B-” on CinemaScore, the lowest grade of the trilogy. Kelly Marcel, who wrote the first two films, directed the PG-13 threequel, which stars Hardy as investigative journalist Eddie Brock and his unwitting, parasitic Venom, both on the run from their world.

“This was a step down in terms of content, and it was painfully obvious to the audience just through the trailers,” says Jeff Bock, analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “Superhero fans want the stakes to be raised with each successive installment – that didn’t happen with ‘The Last Dance.’

After a lighter-than-expected October, total box office returns remain 11.4% behind the same point in 2023 and 26.8% behind 2019, according to Comscore. Most major studios didn’t want to release a movie around the election, so the only titles on the calendar in the coming weeks are Sony’s “Here,” a poorly reviewed drama directed by Robert Zemeckis and featuring digitally-aged versions of Tom Hanks. and Robin Wright (Nov. 1) and Amazon’s Christmas comedy “Red One,” starring Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson as Santa’s security chief (Nov. 15). Otherwise, there won’t be another pillar to save the state of cinema until “Gladiator 2” and “Wicked” on November 22, followed by “Moana 2” on November 27.

“Minegoing returns to its submerged state. “Joker 2” left a hole, and ‘Venom 3’ doesn’t fill it,” says David A. Gross, who heads the film consultancy Franchise Entertainment Research. “There is little momentum at the moment.”

To that end, “Joker: Folie à Deux” landed at No. 12 in its fourth weekend of release, collecting $600,000 from 1,243 locations. The follow-up to 2019’s billion-dollar hit ‘Joker’ has turned into a box office disaster with $57.8 million domestically and $201.1 million globally. By comparison, the original “Joker” stayed in the top two for five weeks and reached $335 million domestically and $21.07 billion worldwide. The $200 million-budgeted Warner Bros. sequel won’t come close to those grosses and is poised to lose $150 million to $200 million in its theatrical run.

Another new release, the Ralph Fiennes-led thriller “Conclave,” opened better than expected at No. 3 with $6.5 million from 1,753 theaters. Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) directed “Conclave,” a tense Vatican drama about the selection of the new pope — which comes with secrets that could shake the foundation of the church. Focus Features has acquired the domestic rights to the PG film, which has solid reviews and hopes to find itself in the Oscar race. Audiences also liked “Conclave,” which earned a “B+” on CinemaScore. Ticket buyers were mostly older men, with 77% over the age of 35 and 54% identifying as male.

“That’s a really good opening for an awards drama,” says Gross. “The Catholic Church provides an endless source of dramatic and cinematic material.”

Elsewhere at the domestic box office, Paramount’s thriller “Smile 2” dropped to second place with $9.6 million, down 59 percent from 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 would go on to become profitable, though not as successful as the original, which earned $105 million in North America and $217 million globally.

Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” slipped to No. 4 with $6.2 million in its fifth weekend of release. The well-reviewed family film has held up at the box office with minimal losses from week to week, collecting $111 million domestically and $232 million worldwide so far.

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

Meanwhile, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner “Anora” rounded out the top 10 with $867,142 from just 34 locations — translating to a robust $25,504 per location. Neon won the rights to the film at Cannes and will continue to expand the footprint for “Anora,” a comedic look at an exotic dancer and sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, through the fall and awards season.