“Venom: The Last Dance” is half as slow as its predecessors in North America, having devoured $22 million in 4,131 domestic theaters Friday and previews. That’s well below the first-day debut of the first “Venom” in 2018 ($32 million) and its 2021 sequel “Let There Be Carnage” ($37 million). It also allows Columbia Pictures’ trilogy to hit a lower pace than its projections, which called for an opening weekend in the $65 million range.

This is a clear downward trend for the franchise in the United States, although “The Last Dance” is still seeking the biggest domestic opening weekend since “Beetlejuice” Beetlejuice’s domination in september. Sony is counting on international markets to strengthen the fortunes of the “Venom” title. The parasite comedy is currently expected to slightly outperform the world-opening “Let There Be Carnage.” The previous two “Venom” films were killers overseas, with the original raking in $642 million outside of North America. And even with a fraction of that amount, the second entry still reached $293 million overseas.

With a production budget of $120 million, “The Last Dance,” co-financed by TSG, will expect similar and sustained participation from international audiences. Reviews have been poor, although that hasn’t proven to be a hindrance for the “Venom” series before. But fans are much less enthusiastic this time around, as indicated by the “B-” grade given by audience research company CinemaScore. The previous two “Venom” entries were more warmly received, each with a “B+.”

Outside of outliers like Disney’s huge “Deadpool & Wolverine” this summer, more recent comic book adaptations have struggled to attract the massive audiences the genre had attracted in previous years. Sony has already suffered a superhero bomb this year with “Madame Web,” another “Spider-Man” spinoff that barely topped $100 million worldwide. While the “Venom” star Tom Hardy floated With the prospect of more “symbiote stories to tell,” it’s entirely plausible that “The Last Dance” could end up being the Marvel antihero’s last outing for a while, especially if box office returns office are lower than previous entries.

Kelly Marcel, who wrote the previous two “Venom” entries, helped direct this trio, which sees Hardy return as haggard reporter Eddie Brock, and also reprising the voice role of the eponymous slimy alien and growling. He is joined by a team of franchise newcomers, including Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Graham and Cristo Fernandez.

Paramount’s “Smile 2” will slip to second place after opening in first place last weekend. The horror film is forecasting $10.3 million for its second release, which would represent a 55% drop. It always seemed a stretch that the sequel could replicate the miniscule 18% drop recorded by the first “Smile” en route to a triumphant word-of-mouth finale above $100 million domestic. Despite everything, with a meager production budget of 28 million dollars, “Smile 2” is quite well positioned since it exceeds 40 million dollars until Sunday.

“The Wild Robot” remains in the top five, projecting $6.2 million in its fifth weekend of release. The DreamWorks Animation feature film is expected to top $110 million through Sunday. The universal release will soon leave behind “IF” ($111 million) and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” ($113 million) to become the 13th highest-grossing domestic release of the year.

“Terrifier 3” is expected to gross around $4.5 million (51% drop) in its third weekend of release. Cineverse’s indie horror triumph is expected to top $44 million through Sunday, triple the combined gross of “Terrifier” and “Terrifier 2,” with more sales to come.

Also opening this weekend, Focus Features is gaining momentum with its papal thriller “Conclave,” after receiving strong reviews at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals. Directed by Edward Berger, whose last film “All Quiet on the Western Front” was a technical awards juggernaut at the Oscars, the Vatican-set feature grossed $2.5 million from 1,753 theaters on its opening day. first. “Conclave” is hoping for strong play buoyed by awards buzz, especially for stars Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini.