For the first time since January, Lionsgate is back atop the box office charts with “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” the third installment of the magician heist film, which earned $8.4 million from 3,403 screens and is now on pace for an opening weekend between $21 million and $24 million, beating Paramount’s R-rated “The Running Man,” which opened on 3,534 screens.
That’s in the same neighborhood as the $22.3 million opening weekend for “Now You See Me 2” in 2016. Carrying a reported $90 million budget, Lionsgate should clear the break-even point theatrically thanks to its usual strategy of funding higher budget films with foreign presales and co-production deals. For “Now You See Me 3,” which follows do-gooder magicians who pull off heists, Cohen Pictures and Alex Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout are attached as production partners.
As with the past installments in the series, “Now You See Me 3” is getting a mixed reaction from critics and more positive reception from fans with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 58% critics and 82% audience. It earned a B+ on CinemaScore, below the A- for its two predecessors.
Meanwhile, “The Running Man” is competing with the second weekend of 20th Century’s “Predator: Badlands” for the No. 2 spot on the charts, with Edgar Wright’s new actioner on pace for a $16-$20 million opening with a $6.4 million Friday box office. “Predator” pulled $3.5 million on Friday and is pacing for a second weekend around $13 million.
For “The Running Man,” that not only falls below pre-release projections of a $20 million-plus opening but could also fall below the $16.8 million opening of Paramount’s far cheaper comedy “The Naked Gun” earlier this year. The Glen Powell-fronted “Running Man,” a sci-fi adaptation of a Stephen King book about a man trying to survive a life-or-death reality-competition show to save his family, carries a reported budget of $110 million, with an undisclosed portion of that budget provided through a slate financing deal with Domain Entertainment.
Like “Now You See Me 3,” reception for “The Running Man” leans positive but is not as strong as “Predator: Badlands” with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 64% critics and 83% audience along with a B+ on CinemaScore.
“Badlands,” meanwhile, is looking at a second weekend drop of around 62% with a 10-day domestic total of approximately $68 million.
The post ‘Now You See Me 3’ Conjures Lionsgate’s First Box Office No. 1 Since January, on Track for $21 Million+ Weekend appeared first on TheWrap.
