Not every franchise needs to feature massive budgets, expansive action sequences, and a cacophony of CGI carnage to justify its ongoing existence, but the disappointing box office performance of A Haunting in Venice means another outing for Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot is by no means guaranteed.
Despite setting a new high on Rotten Tomatoes by nothing a decent 75 percent critical approval rating, the supernaturally-tinged sleuthing sequel could only bring in $119 million at the box office, a new low that saw it fall behind the pandemic-afflicted Death on the Nile. In fact, opener Murder on the Orient Express earned almost $100 million more than its two successors combined, which is pretty damning.
Ticking all the usual boxes its dedicated audience has come to expect, star and director Branagh assembled yet another star-studded ensemble to bring an Agatha Christie mystery to life, with the self-imposed exile of the gloriously mustachioed protagonist being brought to a crashing end when one of the guests at a seance is murdered.
Leaning into its more horror-esque stylings without deviating too far from the template that served its forebears so well, A Haunting in Venice is emblematic of why the ongoing saga has been deemed one of the most consistent and reliably “perfectly okay and nothing more” IPs in the industry.
The overseer of the Christie estate has teased up to 30 sequels, but after falling so short commercially at the third hurdle, even one more could be out of the question. Regardless, A Haunting in Venice has been playing to the galleys on Disney Plus per FlixPatrol, where it’s emerged as one of the top-viewed new additions to the library, so maybe it isn’t dead quite yet.
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