Venom holds on to North American box office title

Tom Hardy’s Venom has tightened its grip around the North American box office title for a second consecutive week.
The Marvel comic book adaptation, which co-stars Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed, grossed $35.7 million (£27.1 million) in its second weekend of release, taking its domestic total to $142.8 million (£108.6 million), in spite of the mixed reception it received from comic book fans and critics alike upon its debut earlier this month (Oct18).
Venom also remains the top box office film globally, crossing the $378 million (£287.4 million) mark.
Its continued popularity in North America helped Venom outpace Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s movie musical remake A Star is Born, which continues to hit the high notes with theatre-goers, banking a further $28 million (£21.3 million) to hold at two.
Ryan Gosling’s space drama First Man debuts at three with a $16.5 million (£12.5 million) opening, just below experts’ predictions, although its slow start isn’t a concern for studio officials, who believe the latest collaboration between the actor and his La La Land director Damien Chazelle is better suited to a box office “marathon, not a sprint”, particularly as older viewers are its target audience.
“What we know is for these types of adult, fall (autumn) films for discerning audiences, it’s not about the opening weekend,” Universal Pictures’ president of domestic distribution Jim Orr says of the Neil Armstrong biopic, which was made on a $59 million (£44.9 million) budget.
“We’re very comfortable that it’s going to have a long life at the domestic box office.”
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween opens in fourth place ahead of the spooky holiday, and animated family film Smallfoot ends the weekend at five.
Meanwhile, period thriller Bad Times at the El Royale struggled to break into the top five – it debuted with a disappointing $7.2 million (£5.5 million), despite boasting the star power of Chris Hemsworth, Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson, and Jon Hamm.