And now, and I’ll make yesterday’s box office report reappear!
Our number one movie is Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (which should have been the title of the second one, so this installment could’ve been called Now You See Three), as audiences opted for the fun magician heist film over a gritty Stephen King thriller. Bullish projections pegged The Running Man for an opening in the $50 million range around a month ago, but I have no idea where anyone was pulling those kinds of numbers from, unless they were severely overestimating the star power of southern charmer Glen Powell.
Yes, for better or worse, the “real” story this weekend is The Running Man having a slow premiere of just $16.4 million against a budget of at least $110 million. The R rating is probably hurting this one, especially since trailers emphasized its teen-friendly action and comedy. Not helping are “fine” reviews, which pointed out it wasn’t nearly as fast-paced as some might expect while also saying it gets bogged down by its social commentary. That’s not going to get butts speeding into theater seats when you promise them a breezy thrill ride.
And “breezy thrill ride” is exactly what Now You See Me is delivering, so should anyone really be surprised it out–sprinted Running Man? Every time I had the trailer for Now with an audience, I would hear someone enthusiastically say they thought it looked good. “Fun” is the key word here, as sometimes that’s all people are looking for. For Lionsgate, this is a much-needed box office relief before they roll the dice with The Housemaid this Christmas.
Finally, there’s Keeper, the third movie from Osgood Perkins in less than fifteen months. Unlike The Monkey and Longlegs, this one never really got a viral marketing campaign going. What’s it even about? Critics are split, with IGN calling it very scary and ComingSoon lamenting over how confusing it is, but filmgoers are having none of it with a ‘D+’ CinemaScore. NEON finds a way to make a little from a lot, so even though a $2.5 million opening sounds awful, it’s more of less typical for the studio.
Next weekend, the singing bisexual witches are set to potentially break records. After that, Zootopia 2 stampedes ahead. So the box office is about to be a very merry place.
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline (note that this chart doesn’t reflect actuals)
- Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (LG) 3,403 theaters, Fri $8.4M Sat $7.7M Sun $5.2M 3-day $21.3M/Wk 1
- Running Man (Par) 3,534 theaters, Fri $6.5M Sat $6.1M Sun $4.4M 3-day $17M Wk 1
- Predator: Badlands (Dis) 3,725 theaters, Fri $3.5M, Sat $5.6M Sun $3.9M 3-day $13M (-68%), Total $66.3M/Wk 2
- Regretting You (Par) 2,709 (-487) theaters, Fri $1.2M Sat $1.6M Sun $1.2M , 3-day $4M (-40%), Total $44.9M/Wk 4
- Black Phone 2 (Uni) 2,419 (-524) theaters, Fri $750K (-50%) Sat $1.1M Sun $710K 3-day $2.65M (-49%), Total $74.6M/Wk 5
- Nuremberg (SPC) 1,830 (+28) theaters, Fri $700K Sat $1M Sun $900K 3 day $2.6M (-33%)/ Total $8.6M/Wk 2
- Keeper (NEON) 1,950 theates, Fri $1.1M Sat $815K Sun $560K 3-day $2.5M/Wk 1
- Sarah’s Oil (AMZ) 2,410, Fri $651K Sat $982K Sun $707K 3-day $2.34M (-45%), Total $8.65M/Wk 2
- Bugonia (Foc) 1,253 (-790) theaters, Fri $490K Sat $650K Sun $460K 3-day $1.6M (-53%), Total $15.6M/Wk 4
- Chainsaw Man (Sony) 1,420 (-865) theaters, Fri $430k Sat $655K Sun $515K, 3-day $1.6M (-53%), total $41.2M/Wk 4