Venom: The Last Dance have difficulty getting on base at home the ticket officewhere it comes in well behind an expected $65 million opening after a soft Friday. At this rate, Sony shows the threequel opening to $52 million from 4,131 theaters.

Some blame it on the competition from the World Series showdown between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Gross was definitely affected in LA, but New York actually over-indexed. Insiders close to the film are also worried about people getting distracted in early Halloween parties. It’s not uncommon for threequels to fall off, but none on Married the team is happy with the severity of the decline.

In North America, the first Married opened to $80.2 million in 2018, then a record for October. It lost the crown a year later Joker ($96.2 million). Let it be a bloodbath debuted in October 2021 to $90 million, a boon for theater owners still recovering from the pandemic and a big win for Sony.

Abroad is another matter, where The last dance is expected to come in above expectations with $128 million for a global start of $180 million, five percent ahead of the sequel, and including a hefty $45 million from China.

Venom: The Last Dance is sure to come first nationally and globally. Its budget was a reasonable $130 million before marketing.

The series has never been a critical success, as the latest installment landed on Rotten Tomatoes with a critic score of 37 percent. The latest film received a franchise-worse B-CinemaScore from audiences.

Directed by Kelly Marcel, Married 3 stars Tom Hardywho returns in the title role. Hardy also co-wrote the screenplay with Marcel, his longtime creative partner, who makes his directorial debut with the film.

Paramount and Temple Hill’s Smile 2 holds up well in its second outing and is headed for second place with $10.3M for a 10-day domestic cume of $41.6M.

Heading for third base is Edward BergerOscar contender Conclavethe weekend’s second new nationwide premiere. The acclaimed Vatican thriller about the election of a new pope is on pace to open to an estimated $6.5 million from 1,753 theaters, the best showing yet for a feature film competing in this year’s awards race.

Produced and financed by FilmNation and Indian Paintbrush, the film’s cast includes Ralph FiennesStanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. Focus Features is distributing the film.

The numbers will be updated Sunday morning.