‘Venom’ sets record, while Gaga’s ‘Star’ still shines
NEW YORK – In a weekend of perfect counterprogramming for Hollywood, the comic-book movie “Venom” shrugged off bad reviews to shatter the October box-office record with an $80 million debut, while Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s “A Star Is Born” remake soared to $41.3 million.
With $174.5 million in tickets sold at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore, it was easily the best October weekend ever, thanks to two very different films that both outperformed expectations.
The much-doubted “Venom,” starring Tom Hardy in the title role, kickstarted a Marvel expansion. The remake of “A Star Is Born” rode a wave of hype, Oscar buzz and critical acclaim for Cooper’s directorial debut and Lady Gaga’s first leading performance.
One was a very iffy proposition; the other a sure thing. Both worked.
“We knew we had a hit,” says Warner Bros. distribution chief Jeffrey Goldstein of “A Star Is Born.” ”We also knew that every time people saw the movie, they felt it, they cried, they loved it. People just like the movie.”
That was more of a question mark for director Ruben Fleischer’s “Venom,” centered on the antihero who first appeared in 2007’s “Spider-Man 3.” The film earned a dismal 32 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and many dismissed it as another misfire with “cinematic universe” ambitions.
Yet audiences flocked to “Venom.” The previous best October opening was 2013’s “Gravity” with $55.7 million (not adjusted for inflation).
“Venom,” which cost about $100 million to make (relatively modest for a superhero film), grossed $205.2 million globally.
While “Venom” attracted a younger, majority male audience, crowds for “A Star is Born” were more female (66 percent) and older (68 percent older than 35). “We had people who hadn’t been to a movie in years,” Goldstein says.
The oft-remade tale, which cost about $40 million to make, had been in development for decades.
The two films dominated the marketplace, though in limited release, “The Hate U Give” opened with
$500,000 on 36 screens. George Tillman Jr.’s adaptation of Angie Thomas’ best-selling young-adult novel, starring Amandla Stenberg, is set to expand nationwide in the next two weeks. Aubrey Wells, who wrote “The Hate U Give” adaptation, died Friday at age 58 after a battle with cancer.
Rounding out the top five: The animated Yeti movie “Smallfoot” finished third with $14.9 million; Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish‘s GED comedy “Night School” slipped to fourth with
$12.3 million; and Jack Black and Cate Blanchett’s “The House With a Clock In Its Walls” was fifth with $7.3 million.
Final numbers are expected Tuesday.