Lionsgate Films’ “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” stole the show at the domestic box office this weekend.
The third installment of the “Now You See Me” franchise earned $21.3 million. The first “Now You See Me” opened in 2013 to more than $29 million, according to Box Office Mojo, and “Now You See Me 2” opened to $22 million in 2016.
Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of analytics firm Box Office Theory, credited some of the heist movie’s success this weekend to Lionsgate’s advertising, which included fan-like edits posted to social media.
“Their marketing team can really be commended for bringing out a very strong young female audience,” he said, adding that the studio reported half of ticket buyers were women and a “healthy amount” were over 25 years old.
Coming in behind “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” was Paramount Pictures’ “The Running Man” ($17 million), which was the second adaptation of a 1982 Stephen King novel. Sony Pictures released “The Running Man,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 1987.
Paramount Pictures’ “The Running Man” is an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novel. – Ross Ferguson/Paramount Pictures
“’Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ and ‘The Running Man’ opening on the same weekend was perfect timing, because they’ll play into Thanksgiving,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “Certainly, this was a great warm-up for what’s going to be a much-needed boost for the box office.”
Box office analyst David A. Gross, who runs the FranchiseRe movie consulting firm, wrote that “The Running Man’s” opening was above average for a King movie. According to FranchiseRe data, the last 18 King adaptations opened to $14.6 million on average domestically.
Third overall at the box office was Disney’s “Predator: Badlands,” which had its best franchise opening with $40 million domestically last weekend. But it earned just $13 million this weekend, a worse-than-expected drop of 68% from its opening.
“Predator: Badlands” slumps in its second weekend, dropping 68% from its franchise-best opening of $40 million. – Disney
The slate of movies in theaters this weekend is ultimately the “calm before the storm,” said Robbins, when Universal Pictures debuts “Wicked: For Good,” the sequel to last year’s highly acclaimed “Wicked,” which opened to $114 million.
“Wicked: For Good” could rake in upwards of $140 million to as much as $180 million, according to Gross. That’s more than the combined success of “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” during the same pre-Thanksgiving weekend last year, which combined to gross $169.5 million.
Hollywood has seen sluggish box office sales this fall, but industry analysts expect a rebound in the coming weeks.
Disney’s “Zootopia 2” opens Thanksgiving weekend, which could end a “long drought” of animated movies that didn’t perform well at the box office, Robbins said.
And Universal Pictures is releasing “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a sequel to the 2023 horror film based on the video game series.
Other movies expected to see big audiences include “Avatar: Fire and Ice” (December 19), and “Marty Supreme,” “Anaconda” and “Song Sung Blue” on December 25.
“We’re gonna have a supercharged final six weeks of the year,” Dergarabedian said. “After a fairly slow post-Summer period, this is where we’re going to make up a lot of ground.”
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