Now You See Me 3 Makes The Running Man Disappear at the Weekend Box Office

So, the weekend went more or less how we expected: one would-be blockbuster sputtered, a slick crowd-pleaser stole its lunch, and everything else kind of shuffled along. If you were hoping for a late-summer turnaround, you might want to hang tight for next weekend.

'The Running Man' trips at the starting line

Edgar Wright's big-budget remake of 'The Running Man' opened to $17 million domestically. We figured it wouldn’t crack $20 million, and, well, here we are. For a movie positioned as a mainstream event, that is a rough start. International didn’t save it either: per Exhibitor Relations, it added just $11 million overseas.

As for star power: Glen Powell is on a hot streak, but this result makes it clear he’s not quite at the point where his name alone opens anything.

'I can open anything'

That magic still basically belongs to his 'Top Gun: Maverick' co-star Tom Cruise. To be fair, this isn’t the meltdown we saw with Sydney Sweeney’s 'Christy' last week, but the 'Running Man' numbers are still a thud for something meant to pull people back to theaters.

Meanwhile, the magicians made bank

Lionsgate’s 'Now You See Me, Now You Don’t' (the third film with Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson) easily took the weekend. It opened to $21.3 million in North America, which is just a tick below 'Now You See Me 2' from nine years ago ($22.3 million, not adjusted for inflation). The bigger story is overseas: a hefty $54.2 million international haul, including $19.2 million from China. This series has always traveled well, and these numbers scream 'profitable' for a threequel a lot of people thought was a miscalculation. Turns out, audiences still like watchable, fizzy capers — and this one is actually fun.

'Predator: Badlands' drops hard

Last weekend’s winner face-planted in weekend two, sliding 68% to $13 million. That’s the kind of fall that suggests the ceiling is now in the $85–90 million domestic range. The brand’s big-screen future is suddenly murky again, though foreign grosses should still nudge it into the black.

Holdovers and the smaller stuff

Colleen Hoover’s 'Regretting You' kept the date-night crowd, dipping 40% to $4 million for a $44 million domestic total. 'The Black Phone 2' narrowly beat 'Nuremberg' for fifth: $2.65 million this weekend for a $74.6 million cume — which is more than enough to lock in a third film. 'Nuremberg' pulled $2.6 million, off only 33% from last week, and sits at $8.6 million total — modest on paper, but one of the better-performing awards titles this season.

On the genre side, Osgood Perkins’ new horror movie 'Keeper' tanked with $2.5 million. That’s a rare miss for both Perkins and Neon after the successes of 'Longlegs' and 'The Monkey.' 'Sarah's Oil' did $2.3 million for an $8.6 million total. And 'Bugonia' and 'Chainsaw Man' landed in a photo finish for ninth, each at $1.6 million.

Weekend scoreboard

• Now You See Me, Now You Don’t — $21.3M domestic weekend; $54.2M international, including $19.2M in China
• The Running Man — $17M domestic weekend; $11M overseas (per Exhibitor Relations)
• Predator: Badlands — $13M weekend; down 68%; tracking toward $85–90M domestic total
• Regretting You — $4M weekend; down 40%; $44M domestic total
• The Black Phone 2 — $2.65M weekend; $74.6M domestic total (threequel basically guaranteed)
• Nuremberg — $2.6M weekend; down 33%; $8.6M total; among the stronger awards-season performers
• Keeper — $2.5M weekend; rare flop for Neon and director Osgood Perkins after 'Longlegs' and 'The Monkey'
• Sarah's Oil — $2.3M weekend; $8.6M total
• Bugonia — $1.6M weekend
• Chainsaw Man — $1.6M weekend (tied for ninth)

The road ahead

Another soft domestic weekend in the books. The good news: 'Wicked: For Good' arrives this week, and if anything can coax people back to the multiplex right now, it’s that. Not a moment too soon.