Lionsgate Films’ “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” stole the present on the domestic field workplace 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 greater than $29 million, based on Box Office Mojo, and “Now You See Me 2” opened to $22 million in 2016.
Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founding father of analytics agency Box Office Theory, credited a number of the heist movie’s success this weekend to Lionsgate’s promoting, 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 mentioned, including that the studio reported half of ticket consumers had been girls and a “healthy amount” had been over 25 years outdated.
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 launched “The Running Man,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 1987.
“’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,” mentioned Paul Dergarabedian, head of market traits at Comscore. “Certainly, this was a great warm-up for what’s going to be a much-needed boost for the box office.”
Box workplace analyst David A. Gross, who runs the FranchiseRe movie consulting agency, wrote that “The Running Man’s” opening was above common for a King movie. According to FranchiseRe information, the final 18 King diversifications opened to $14.6 million on common domestically.
Third general on the field workplace was Disney’s “Predator: Badlands,” which had its finest franchise opening with $40 million domestically final weekend. But it earned simply $13 million this weekend, a worse-than-expected drop of 68% from its opening.
The slate of films in theaters this weekend is in the end the “calm before the storm,” mentioned Robbins, when Universal Pictures debuts “Wicked: For Good,” the sequel to final yr’s extremely acclaimed “Wicked,” which opened to $114 million.
“Wicked: For Good” might rake in upwards of $140 million to as a lot as $180 million, based on Gross. That’s greater than the mixed success of “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” throughout the identical pre-Thanksgiving weekend final yr, which mixed to gross $169.5 million.
Hollywood has seen sluggish field workplace gross sales this fall, however business analysts anticipate a rebound in the approaching weeks.
Disney’s “Zootopia 2” opens Thanksgiving weekend, which might finish a “long drought” of animated motion pictures that didn’t carry out properly on the field workplace, Robbins mentioned.
And Universal Pictures is releasing “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a sequel to the 2023 horror movie primarily based on the online game collection.
Other motion pictures anticipated to see large audiences embrace “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 mentioned. “After a fairly slow post-Summer period, this is where we’re going to make up a lot of ground.”