Box Office: 'Venom 3' Tops $300M as 'Smile 2' Passes $100M Worldwide

Robert Zemeckis' 'Here' opened with a poor $5 million in North America while Clint Eastwood's 'Juror No. 2' earned a mere $5 million overseas.

Nope, I'm not going to complain about the lack of significant new releases this weekend or, frankly, over the next few weeks, give or take Amazon MGM Studios’ Red One on November 15. If things go badly on Tuesday, I’m unsure how much everyone will want to race out to the multiplex to see the latest franchise film(s). Yes, Arrival opened with a robust $24 million the weekend after the 2016 election shocker, but that was a $50 million sci-fi flick that didn’t have to perform like a tentpole. Ditto, relatively speaking, Keanu Reeves’ Hardball topping the weekend box office for the first two post-9/11 weekends before Don’t Say a Word and Zoolander essentially “restarted” the theatrical ecosystem.

And if things go well, it won’t harm Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and might give Judy Greer her first star vehicle chart-topper. The overall domestic box office was around $77 million, +20% from last year’s pre-The Marvels $64 million total and down 34% from the early November 2019 frame, which saw Terminator: Dark Fate bomb with a chart-topping $29 million debut. Might Venom: The Last Dance have opened better as the official holiday season (November and December) kick-off flick? Perhaps, but Puss in Boots showed in 2011 that the right movie can open a little lower than hoped and leg out if it delivers. Granted, Venom 3 did not open with $34 million and then earn $33 million in weekend two, but you get the idea.