Box Office: 'Beetlejuice 2' Tops $450 Million Globally While 'The Wild Robot' Passes $300 Million Worldwide

'Venom: The Last Dance,' thanks to $90 million from China, has passed the overseas cume of 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage'.

In holdover news, Kelly Marcel’s Venom: The Last Dance earned $7.3 million (-54%) in weekend four to bring its domestic cume up to $127.6 million. Thanks to a $90 million cume in China - where Venom earned $269 million in 2018, but Venom: Let There Be Carnage did not play in 2021 - Sony’s $120 million budgeted threequel has earned $308.5 million overseas. That passes the $293.3 million overseas cume of Venom 2 and brings this film’s global total to $436.1 million. The Tom Hardy vehicle might end up closer to $490 million worldwide than Let There Be Carnage’s $508 million cume, but a hit is a hit. Moreover, an over/under $400 million total (presuming $0.00 from China) would have been good enough considering the budget and declining automatic interest in Marvel/DC flicks.

Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant earned $5.4 million (-50%) to bring its ten-day cume to $20 million. That’s pretty good for A) a faith-based flick and B) a Lionsgate theatrical in 2024. I’d expect a steadier hold over the next month - it pulled a 4x Friday-to-weekend multiplier - alongside the tentpoles as a safe holiday pick, even for agnostic moviegoers. Heretic earned $5.2 million (-52%) for a $20.4 million ten-day cume. Again, it’s not bad for an original, which A24 picked up for $14 million before selling off most overseas distribution rights. Universal’s The Wild Robot passed $300 million worldwide as it earned another $4.3 million (-35%) in North America and $5.9 million (-35%) overseas, giving Dreamworks’ $79 million, Lupita Nyong’o-starring toon a $138 million domestic and $170 million overseas cume for a $308.5 million global total.

Paramount’s Smile earned $2.95 million (-42%) on weekend five. That brings the $28 million sequel’s month-long total to $65.6 million domestic and $128 million worldwide. Again, this is a sequel to a massive overperformer ($106 million domestic and $217 million worldwide) that is only disappointing by earning what we expected from its predecessor. Conclave grossed $2.85 million (-31%) for a $26.6 million 24-day domestic total. Director Edward Berger and screenwriter Peter Straughan’s crowdpleasing adaptation of Robert Harris’ novel is playing both to the AARP crowd and (relatively speaking) to younger moviegoers who consider themselves messy bitches who live for drama. That’s a compliment. In a prior generation, Conclave would have been pitched as a purely commercial, high-quality studio programmer. And to a certain extent, that’s how “Shenanagins in the Vatican” is being embraced.

Searchlight expanded Jessie Eisenberg’s A Real Pain into 1,185 theaters with promising results. The well-reviewed and buzzy flick, featuring Eisenberg and an Oscar-buzzy Kieran Culkin, earned $2.3 million for a $1,941 per-theater average and $3 million 17-day cume. That’s not a barnburner, but if it gets into the Oscar race, we could see legs for the 90-minute, comparatively youth-skewing road trip/overseas travel dramedy. Speaking of which, Sean Baker’s Anora earned $.184 (-27%) in weekend five as it expanded to 1,500 theaters. The super buzzy awards season rom-com/pulp thriller has crossed $10.5 million domestically and $18 million worldwide. The Mikey Madison vehicle is still neck-and-neck with Parasite ($2.5 million in weekend five for an $11.3 million 31-day total), even noting more theaters and inflation. Comparatively speaking, the kids have Anora/Conclave fever, at least until next weekend.

A24’s We Live in Time earned $1.13 million (-47%) for a $24 million 36-day domestic total. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has passed $450 million worldwide, a spectacular result for the $100 million sequel, no matter where that money came from. $156 million overseas for a sequel to a film that essentially didn’t play theatrically outside of North America when it opened 36 years ago qualifies as “good enough, thanks.” Not so much “good enough” is Paramount and Hasbero’s Transformers One, which has earned $59 million domestically and $128 million worldwide, tying Smile 2’s global total on 2.5x the budget. It’s an unsurprising result for a surprisingly good movie. Finally, MUBI’s The Substance has earned a terrific $16.3 million domestic and $45 million worldwide, making it an under-the-radar victory for original horror.

Courtesy of The Numbers…