“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” pulled off a nifty magic trick, besting Glen Powell’s big-budget action-thriller, “The Running Man,” and the second weekend of “Predator: Badlands,” the critically adored reboot of the long-running monster franchise.
The third “Now You See Me” film picked up $21.3 million over the weekend, a solid result for a series that hasn’t had a new entry since 2016. The film also grossed $54.2 million across 64 international territories this weekend for a worldwide total of $75.5 million.
“This is still a viable franchise,” says Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at ComScore. “The international audience really delivered for the film.”
It’s good news for Lionsgate, the studio behind the $90 million illusionist adventure, which has failed to materialize many hits in recent months (the list of duds includes “Ballerina” and “Good Fortune”). It may signal a shift in the studio’s fortunes, with “The Housemaid,” an adaptation of Freida McFadden’s best-selling potboiler, hitting theaters in December, and “Michael,” a biopic of Michael Jackson, and “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” opening in 2026. Ruben Fleischer, who previously helmed “Venom” and “Zombieland,” handled directing duties on “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” with stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco returning as a group of magicians who fleece corrupt one-percenters. A fourth film is in the works.
“We gave the audience exactly what they wanted,” says Kevin Grayson, head of domestic distribution for Lionsgate. He argued that “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” was able to broaden its audience by bringing back franchise mainstays and adding a new generation of stars such as Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt. “The new cast helped bring in younger moviegoers,” Grayson added.
“The Running Man,” which paired Powell with cult favorite filmmaker Edgar Wright, was no match for “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” settling for a second-place finish with a lackluster $17 million. Internationally, the film earned $11.2 million for a global haul of $28.2 million. That’s a troubling result considering that Paramount shelled out $110 million to make the movie. It’s also Powell’s first stumble since he began building a following with hits like the rom-com “Anyone But You,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Twisters.” Oh, and it’s bad news for Wright, who could have used a box office winner after his last film, “Last Night in Soho,” had the misfortune of opening in 2021 as Omicron was hitting the scene. Heading into the weekend, Paramount had hoped the film would debut to more than $20 million. “The Running Man” was greenlit and produced long before David Ellison’s Skydance took control of Paramount in August.
“This thing is dead in the water,” says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “It doesn’t have enough traction to survive the coming holiday season.”
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The weekend’s two major new releases appealed to slightly different demographics. “The Running Man’s” audience was 63% male and 70% between the ages of 18 and 44, while the opening crowd for “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” was 54% female and 65% over the age of 25.
“The Running Man” is the second attempt at adapting Stephen King’s dystopian novel; the first was a campy 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger flick. And Schwarzenegger has a connection to “Predator: Badlands,” having starred in the original entry in the series, which was also released in 1987 during his action hero heyday. In its sophomore weekend, “Predator: Badlands” dropped a steep 68% to $13 million to bring the 20th Century Studios release’s domestic haul to $66.3 million. The film cost $105 million to make and has earned $136.3 million globally.
The weekend’s other major new release, Neon’s “Keeper,” the latest indie horror effort from writer-director Osgood Perkins, earned a paltry $2.5 million for a seventh-place debut. That’s a pale shadow of what Perkins’ previous films, “Longlegs” ($22 million) and “The Monkey” ($14 million), earned in their opening weekends. Critics loathed the film, and audiences appeared to agree, handing it a “D+” grade, so word-of-mouth won’t come in handy. The only saving grace is that “Keeper” cost a mere $6 million to produce. Perkins will try to recapture his commercial touch with next year’s “The Young People,” which stars Tatiana Maslany and Nicole Kidman.
Paramount’s “Regretting You,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, took fourth place in its fourth weekend, earning $4 million. That pushes its domestic total to $44.9 million. Universal’s “The Black Phone 2” rounded out the top five, picking up $2.6 million to push its stateside haul to $74.7 million after five weeks of release.
In milestone news, “One Battle After Another” crossed $70 million at the domestic box office and $200 million globally after eight weekends in theaters. That would be a strong result for an R-rated, adult-oriented thriller, save for the fact that Warner Bros. gave director Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio $140 million to make the film. Critics called it a masterpiece, and the movie generated Oscar buzz, but given that “One Battle After Another” needed to make roughly $300 million to break even, the studio is looking at a very steep write-down.
Overall, the domestic box office topped out at just over $75 million, slightly ahead of the same period last year when Dwayne Johnson’s holiday comedy “Red One” drove earnings to $73.2 million. Next weekend brings “Wicked: For Good,” giving theater owners renewed hope after they’ve suffered through one of the worst falls in movie business history. To prime the pump, Universal re-released “Wicked,” bringing in $1.2 million.
“We’re in the calm before the Thanksgiving storm,” says Dergarabedian. “Things are about to heat up.”
From Variety US