Sony’s Venom 3 keeps driving the box office, staying at No. 1 during its third weekend at $16.2 million in the domestic box office, bringing its domestic total to $114.8 million and world total to $394 million. That makes it the lowest-grossing film in the Venom series but will likely take in a small profit over its production budget of $120 million.
The No. 2 slot is being battled between A24’s “Heretic” and Lionsgate’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” both very close contenders with “Pageant” slightly ahead at $11.1 million over “Heretic’s” $11 million. Note “Pageant” gained some mileage from preview screenings last week, bringing in an additional $2.2 million to the opening. Both of these should be profitable movies, as they were each made with a lower budget of approximately $10 million.
One welcome relief for Lionsgate is the hit “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” which came in on the heels of some box office disappointments. This faith-based family film has delighted moviegoers, taking in an A CinemaScore grade and earning 89% from critics and 98% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
On the other hand, the horror thriller A24’s “Heretic,” which stars Hugh Grant, received a relatively softer response by CinemaScore with a C+ and an audience score of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. With the relatively light competition for horror films in theaters, “Heretic” may even draw more fans during the coming weeks.
Universal/DreamWorks’s “The Wild Robot” came in fourth with another $6.6 million added to its tally, and Paramount’s “Smile 2” rounded out the top five with $5 million. Once again, a diverse mix of films dominated the box office over Veterans Day weekend, as they played to a genre that is as uniquely appealable and long-lasting in an audience’s mind as horror and family.
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