“Venom: The Last Dance” is two steps slower than its series predecessors in North America, after taking in $22 million from 4,131 domestic theaters and previews on Friday. That’s well below the first-day debuts of both the first “Venom” in 2018 ($32 million) and its 2021 sequel “Let There Be Carnage” ($37 million). It also puts Columbia Pictures’ trilogy capper on track to fall short of expectations, which had predicted an opening weekend of around $65 million.

That’s a clear downward trend for the franchise in the United States, although “The Last Dance,” co-financed by TSG, is still on track for the biggest domestic opening weekend since “Beetlejuice dominated Beetlejuice” in September. Sony is banking on international markets to bolster its fortunes, as they have with previous “Venom” entries. Current expectations are that the parasitic buddy comedy will slightly outperform the worldwide opening of ‘Let There Be Carnage’. Both previous “Venom” films were killer overseas, with the original grossing a whopping $642 million outside of North America. And even for a fraction of that, the second entry still reached $293 million overseas.

“The Last Dance” has a smaller production budget than most superhero marquees: $120 million, but will look for a similar, sustained turnout of international audiences to prove a worthwhile investment. The reviews were bad, but that hasn’t proven to be an obstacle for the “Venom” series before. But fans are much less enthusiastic this time, as evidenced by the “B-” grade from cinema research agency Cinemascore. Both previous “Venom” entries were more warmly received, each receiving a “B+.”

Aside from outliers like Disney’s mega-blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” this summer, most recent comic book adaptations have struggled to attract the massive audiences the genre attracted in previous years. Sony has already suffered a superhero bombshell this year with “Madame Web,” another “Spider-Man” spinoff that barely topped $100 million worldwide. Although “Venom” star Tom Hardy has raised the prospect of even more “symbiote stories” to be told, it is entirely plausible that “The Last Dance” could ultimately be the Marvel antihero’s final outing for some time, especially if the box office revenues lag behind. previous entries.

Kelly Marcel, who wrote both previous “Venom” entries, has agreed to direct this threequel, which sees Hardy return as feral journalist Eddie Brock, as well as voice the role of the eponymous snarling, gooey alien. He is joined by a team of franchise newcomers including Juno Temple, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach and Cristo Fernandez. Stephen Graham returns after his role in “Venom 2.”

Focus Features is vying for third place at the opening, going wide with the 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 award winner at the Oscars, the Vatican-set feature earned $2.5 million on its opening day from 1,753 theaters. Notably, the film attracted an older audience on its opening day, with early exits indicating 77% of ticket buyers were aged 35 or over. It received a “B+” on Cinemascore. “Conclave” hopes for long play, buoyed by awards shows, especially for stars Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini.

Paramount’s “Smile 2” will slide into second place after topping last weekend. The horror film is projecting $10.3 million for its second film, which would represent a 55% drop. It always seemed far-fetched that the sequel could replicate the miniscule 18% drop that the first ‘Smile’ recorded on its way to triumphant word-of-mouth above $100 million domestically. Still, with a limited production budget of $28 million, “Smile 2” is positioned well enough as it surpasses $40 million through Sunday.

“The Wild Robot” is still in the top five, projecting $6.2 million for its fifth weekend of release. It looks like the DreamWorks Animation feature will surpass $110 million through Sunday. The Universal release will soon pass “IF” ($111 million) and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” ($113 million) to become the 13th highest-grossing domestic release of the year.

A24’s “We Live in Time” saw about $1.83 million on Friday, as the tearjerker adds nearly 2,000 locations in its second expansion. Rivals are predicting a $5 million weekend for Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield’s two-hander, which would be 20% more than last weekend. The film will surpass $10 million in North America on Saturday.

It looks like “Terrifier 3” will gross around $4.5 million (down 51%) in its third weekend of release. Cineverse’s indie-horror triumph should top $44 million through Sunday — tripling the combined grosses of both “Terrifier” and “Terrifier 2,” with even more sales to come.