\u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d pulled off a nifty magic trick, besting Glen Powell\u2019s big-budget action-thriller, \u201cThe Running Man,\u201d and the second weekend of \u201cPredator: Badlands,\u201d the critically adored reboot of the long-running monster franchise.<\/p>\n
The third \u201cNow You See Me\u201d film picked up $21.3 million over the weekend, a solid result for a series that hasn\u2019t 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. It\u2019s 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 \u201cBallerina\u201d and \u201cGood Fortune\u201d). It may signal a shift in the studio\u2019s fortunes, with \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d an adaptation of Freida McFadden\u2019s best-selling potboiler, hitting theaters in December, and \u201cMichael,\u201d a biopic of Michael Jackson, and \u201cThe Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,\u201d opening in 2026. Ruben Fleischer, who previously helmed \u201cVenom\u201d and \u201cZombieland,\u201d handled directing duties on \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n More from Variety<\/p>\n \u201cThis is still a viable franchise,\u201d says Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at ComScore. \u201cThe international audience really delivered for the film.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Running Man,\u201d which paired Powell with cult favorite filmmaker Edgar Wright, was no match for \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t,\u201d 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\u2019s a troubling result considering that Paramount shelled out $110 million to make the movie. It\u2019s also Powell\u2019s first stumble since he began building a following with hits like the rom-com \u201cAnyone But You,\u201d \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d and \u201cTwisters.\u201d Oh, and it\u2019s bad news for Wright, who could have used a box office winner after his last film, \u201cLast Night in Soho,\u201d 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. \u201cThe Running Man\u201d was greenlit and produced long before David Ellison\u2019s Skydance took control <\/a>of Paramount in August.<\/p>\n \u201cThis thing is dead in the water,\u201d says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have enough traction to survive the coming holiday season.\u201d<\/p>\n The weekend\u2019s two major new releases appealed to slightly different demographics. \u201cThe Running Man\u2019s\u201d audience was 63% male and 70% between the ages of 18 and 44, while the opening crowd for \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d was 54% female and 65% over the age of 25.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Running Man\u201d is the second attempt at adapting Stephen King\u2019s dystopian novel; the first was a campy 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger flick. And Schwarzenegger has a connection to \u201cPredator: Badlands,\u201d having starred in the original entry in the series, which was also released in 1987 during his action hero heyday. In its sophomore weekend, \u201cPredator: Badlands<\/a>\u201d dropped a steep 68% to $13 million to bring the 20th Century Studios release\u2019s domestic haul to $66.3 million. The film cost $105 million to make and has earned $136.3 million globally.<\/p>\n The weekend\u2019s other major new release, Neon\u2019s \u201cKeeper,\u201d the latest indie horror effort from writer-director Osgood Perkins, earned a paltry $2.5 million for a seventh-place debut. That\u2019s a pale shadow of what Perkins\u2019 previous films, \u201cLonglegs\u201d ($22 million) and \u201cThe Monkey\u201d ($14 million), earned in their opening weekends. Critics loathed the film, and audiences appeared to agree, handing it a \u201cD+\u201d grade, so word-of-mouth won\u2019t come in handy. The only saving grace is that \u201cKeeper\u201d cost a mere $6 million to produce. Perkins will try to recapture his commercial touch with next year\u2019s \u201cThe Young People,\u201d<\/a> which stars Tatiana Maslany and Nicole Kidman.<\/p>\n Paramount\u2019s \u201cRegretting You,\u201d an adaptation of Colleen Hoover\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cThe Black Phone 2\u201d rounded out the top five, picking up $2.6 million to push its stateside haul to $74.7 million after five weeks of release.<\/p>\n In milestone news, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d 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 \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d needed to make roughly $300 million to break even, the studio is looking at a very steep write-down<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overall, the domestic box office topped out at just over $75 million, slightly ahead of the same period last year when Dwayne Johnson\u2019s holiday comedy \u201cRed One\u201d drove earnings to $73.2 million. Next weekend brings \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d giving theater owners renewed hope after they\u2019ve suffered through one of the worst falls<\/a> in movie business history. To prime the pump, Universal re-released \u201cWicked,\u201d bringing in $1.2 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the calm before the Thanksgiving storm,\u201d says Dergarabedian. \u201cThings are about to heat up.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d pulled off a nifty magic trick, besting Glen Powell\u2019s big-budget action-thriller,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[59277,156,8846,6455,409,111,139,85163,69,60899,33255],"class_list":{"0":"post-138262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-edgar-wright","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-glen-powell","11":"tag-michael-jackson","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-now-you-see-me","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-osgood-perkins","18":"tag-paul-dergarabedian"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}