The final weeks of the summer are bringing the typical slowdown for the box office, as Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool & Wolverine” has retaken the No. 1 spot from fellow Disney release “Alien: Romulus” while new offerings like Amazon MGM’s “Blink Twice” and Lionsgate’s “The Crow” are sliding below holdovers from earlier in August.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” leads the charts with $18.3 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its total to $577 million domestic and $1.21 billion worldwide. “Alien: Romulus” is just behind with $16.2 million. While that’s a 61% drop from its opening weekend, the film now has a total $72.6 million domestic and $225.4 million worldwide, meaning that “Romulus” will pass the theatrical total of its 2017 predecessor, “Alien: Covenant” in the coming days.
“Blink Twice” came in fourth on the charts this weekend with $7.3 million from 3,063 theaters, sitting behind the $11.8 million third weekend of “It Ends With Us,” which now has a $120 million domestic total.
Directed by Zoe Kravitz, “Blink Twice” was fairly well received by critics with a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score, but audiences were somewhat less enthused with a B- on CinemaScore. While not a very strong start, “Blink Twice” has a low break-even point, carrying a budget of just $20 million before marketing costs.
On the other hand, “The Crow” is looking far worse with an opening weekend of just $4.6 million from 2,752 theaters while carrying a reported budget of $50 million. While also receiving a B- on CinemaScore, the gory remake of the 90s gothic superhero film was panned by critics with a 20% RT score.
The one silver lining for Lionsgate is that it is not on the hook for that production budget, as it only paid a $10 million distribution fee plus marketing costs for the film.
But the poor start of “The Crow” continues what has been a rough August for Lionsgate, as its other big release, “Borderlands,” has grossed just $15.1 million through three weekends. In addition, the studio was criticized after it was revealed that a new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming film “Megalopolis” had used fake pull quotes of negative reviews for the director’s past hit films that were AI-generated, leading the studio to pull the trailer and cut ties with the marketing consultant behind the trailer.
The other new release of the weekend is Sony/Affirm’s faith-based film “The Forge,” which opened to $6.6 million from 1,818 theaters. As is typical for the genre, the drama earned an A+ from its core evangelical audience on CinemaScore and will turn a modest profit against its $5 million budget.
Among holdovers, Universal’s “Twisters” will cross the $250 million domestic mark in the coming days as it added $6.2 million in its sixth weekend. Fathom/Laika’s 15th anniversary re-release of “Coraline” was extended to a second weekend and added $5 million, bringing the film’s re-release total to a very impressive $24 million, a record for Fathom.
Finally, Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” has passed another box office milestone after three months in theaters: $1 billion in overseas grosses. With $1.64 billion grossed worldwide, it is $14 million away from passing the 2019 “Lion King” remake and becoming the highest grossing animated film of any kind.
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