Lionsgate’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is making magic at the box office, where it stole the show in a surprise win ahead of Paramount’s big-budget The Running Man.
The Ruben Fleischer-directed Now You See Me 3 — which wasn’t cheap either — topped the domestic chart with $21 million from 3,403 theaters after starting off with a better-than-expected Friday haul of $8.4 million, according to Monday actuals. Overseas, it dazzled in opening to $54.2 million from 64 markets for a global start of North of $75 million, compared to $28 million for Running Man.
Among its bag of tricks? Females are turning out in droves to see the third installment in the long-dormant franchise about a group of thieving magicians, buying up 54 percent of all tickets sold so far in North America. And solid exit scores among U.S. moviegoers are more than making up for so-so reviews, including a B+ CinemaScore and an 80 percent audience ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film reunites franchise stalwarts Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher. Their characters, known as the Four Horsemen, are joined by a trio of younger magicians played by Justice Smith, Ariana Greenblatt and Dominic Sessa.
Heading into the weekend, Now You See Me 3 was tracking to debut in the $19 million range domestically, while Running Man was tracking to top the chart with $24 million-$25 million (to be fair, Paramount was more cautious in suggesting $20 million). By Saturday morning, the studio lowered its estimate to $17 million to $19 million based on Friday’s gross of $6.4 million from 3,534 cinemas.
That range was too bullish, however. Monday actuals show the film coming in at $16.5 million, versus Sunday’s estimate of $17 million. The news was even worse overseas, where Running Man limped to an estimated $11.2 million from its first 58 markets, including paid previews.
Directed by Edgar Wright, Running Man‘s cast is led by Glen Powell. The pic marks the actor’s first box office miss since he rose to fame after starring in a string of hits, including Twisters, Anybody But You and Top Gun: Maverick. He’s among numerous high-profile actors whose latest films have tanked recently at the box office, sparking a spirited debate as to what degree an actor can be blamed for a movie’s demise and, in the case of Powell, whether he is has achieved leading-man status (some question whether he was an odd choice to play an angry action hero).
Audience reaction can’t be blamed in this case, since Running Man’s exit scores mirror Now You See Me 3. It also has somewhat better reviews). One big difference between the two films is the gender breakdown; Running Man is skewing heavily male (64 percent), meaning it has to compete with hit holdover Predator: Badlands.
Wright’s movie is the second film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 dystopian novel after the 1987 film of the same name starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The storyline revolves around a desperate, enraged father who appears on a deadly reality show that takes advantage of a classist society where many don’t have enough money to live on. Josh Brolin, William H. Macy, Lee Pace and Emilia Jones also star.
Running Man came in second, followed by 20th Century/Disney’s Predator: Badlands, which came in third in its sophomore outing with $12.7 million for a domestic tally of $66 million — already the second-best showing of the franchise behind Predator vs Alien ($80.3 million), not adjusted for inflation. Globally, it finished Sunday with a cume in the $136 million range, a likewise stellar number and the second-best of the series at current exchange rates and excluding China. The audience and critical darling pic did drop a steep 68 percent in the U.S., but Disney insiders expect it to make up ground in the coming days.
Constantin Films and Paramount’s sleeper hit Regretting You continued to impress a month into its run, earning another $3.7 million for a domestic tally of $44.7 million.
Universal and Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2 rounded out the top five domestically in its fifth weekend with an estimated $2.6 million for a domestic total of $75 million and $127.7 million globally.
Osgood Perkins’ Keeper, the other new wide opener of the weekend, debuted to a frighteningly dismal $2.5 million from 1,950 theaters in a career-worst start for the director following such hits as Longlegs. The Neon release came in sixth after getting slapped with a D+ CinemaScore and awful audience exit polls. The weekend wasn’t a total wash for Neon; Oscar hopeful Sentimental Value successfully expanded into a total of 28 theaters for a per-location average of $13,580, by far the best of the weekend among any feature film. Also, Keeper did come in ahead of Nuremberg (Sunday estimate showed the latter leading).
From Sony Pictures Classics, Nuremberg earned another $2.4 million for a 10-day U.S. total of $8.5 million.
The big milestone of the weekend went to Paul Thomas Anderson’s awards darling One Battle After Another, which cleared the $200 million mark globally after finishing Sunday with a domestic tally of $70.2 million and $130.1 million overseas.
And Universal’s rerelease of Wicked on the eve of Wicked: For Good‘s opening next weekend paid off nicely, singing to $1.2 million from 2,195 theaters. From director Jon M. Chu, the second installment in his two-part opus is set to break more records for a movie adaptation of a Broadway musical.
Nov. 16, 7:30 a.m.: Updated with revised weekend estimates.
Nov. 17, 3 p.m.: Updated with Monday actuals.
This story was originally published Nov. 15 at 10:04 a.m.
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