All hail Marvel Jesus.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds (as the Merc With a Mouth who calls himself the messiah of his world) and Hugh Jackman, delivered another boost at the box office, taking in $97 million in its second weekend of release.
Those ticket sales, down just 53% from its $211 million debut, rank as the eighth-biggest second weekend in domestic box office history. Only the billion-dollar films “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($147 million), “Infinity War” ($114 million), “Black Panther” ($111 million), “Jurassic World” ($106 million), “The Avengers” ($103 million) and “Inside Out 2” ($101 million) have enjoyed bigger second-weekend openings. “Deadpool & Wolverine” surpassed last year’s “Barbie,” which previously held the eighth spot with $93 million in its second weekend.
So far, “Deadpool & Wolverine” has grossed $395 million in North America and $824 million worldwide, surpassing the first two “Deadpool” installments — $783 million and $786 million, respectively — after two weeks of release. The comic book sequel is expected to cross the $1 billion mark in a matter of days and is already the second-biggest film of 2024 behind “Inside Out 2” ($1.555 billion worldwide).
As “Deadpool & Wolverine” continued to dominate, two new films failed to make the big box office. M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap,” a twisted thriller starring Josh Hartnett as a healthy dad who turns serial killer, landed in third place with $15 million from 3,181 theaters. Meanwhile, Sony’s kids-oriented “Harold and the Purple Crayon” landed in sixth place with $6 million from 3,325 theaters.
“Trap” is one of the quieter starts to Shyamalan’s career. His previous two films, 2023’s “Knock at the Cabin” and 2021’s “Old,” also started slowly with $14.1 million and $16.8 million, respectively. While “Old,” a mystery about a rapidly aging beach town, managed to recover with $48 million domestically and $90 million worldwide, “Knock at the Cabin,” a thriller about a family held hostage while vacationing at a remote cabin, earned $35 million domestically and $54 million worldwide.
Shyamalan, the director of “The Sixth Sense,” “The Split” and “Unbreakable,” is taking the unusual step of self-financing his films, with Warner Bros. handling distribution. “Entrapment” cost about $30 million to make, meaning Shyamalan needs the film to be closer to “The Old Man” than “The Cabin Roads” to justify his budget. However, reviews and audience ratings have been weak (“Entrapment” has a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and a C+ on CinemaScore), which may not help the rumor mill.
“This is not a start on the level of Shyalman’s recent films,” says David A. Gross, who runs the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Overseas business has been good, not great, for Mr. Shyalman and for this type of film. ‘Trap’ will need strong supporting business to break even.”
“Harold and the Purple Pencil,” based on the children’s book of the same name, came in second behind kids’ films “Despicable Me 4” (at No. 4 with $11.2 million in its fifth weekend) and “Inside Out 2” (at No. 5 with $6.7 million in its eighth weekend) in the domestic charts, even though those films have already been on the big screen for more than a month. “Harold,” a live-action/animated hybrid starring Zachary Levi, had a $40 million production budget, so Sony is betting that the film will resonate with family audiences throughout the rest of the summer. Although critics hated “Harold and the Purple Pencil” (it earned a 28% “rotten” average on Rotten Tomatoes), a few moviegoers who bought tickets were more enthusiastic, as evidenced by an “A-” CinemaScore score.
Universal's “Twisters” debuted at No. 2 on the domestic box office charts with $22 million in its third release. The film, which stars Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, has been a box office hit, grossing $194 million domestically and nearly $250 million worldwide so far.
Thanks to a slew of blockbusters, July brought in $1.2 billion in domestic revenue, marking the first $1 billion month since July 2023, when “Barbenheimer” fever swept the country. However, a string of recent successes, including “Inside Out 2,” “Twisters,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” haven’t been enough to lift the domestic box office out of its slump. The North American total for 2024 remains 16.5% below 2023, according to ComScore.
“July was a knockout, with big results that pushed the month past the $1 billion mark domestically,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at ComScore. He doesn’t expect the next few weeks to be as strong, adding that “the blockbusters of July will now carry the burden of boosting August as we approach the summer finish line.”
