Deadpool & Wolverine slices and dices Trap at the box office over August 2024's first weekend

No surprise here, Deadpool & Wolverine tore up the box office yet again with a $97 million second weekend. That was more than enough to make it the number-one movie in America for the second consecutive frame after its massive $211 million bow last weekend. That $96 million second weekend haul is good enough for the eighth-biggest second weekend in history, but what's really impressive is how Deadpool & Wolverine fell compared to other MCU releases. This Shawn Levy directorial effort only dropped 54% from opening weekend, while most July Marvel Studios features tend to have 60+% second weekend declines.

That dip leaves the 62% and 61% decline of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man and the Wasp, respectively, in the dust. Better yet, it's significantly better than recent MCU Declines like the 67% plunges Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder both experienced in the summer of 2022. Deadpool & Wolverine even fell a smidge better than Guardians of the Galaxy's 55% decline ten years ago. Deadpool & Wolverine also had a significantly better second-weekend hold than either of the preceding Deadpool movies despite opening so much bigger than both titles.

Excellent word of mouth is clearly doing its job with this smash hit, which has now grossed $395.5 million domestically. How high can this one go? A $600+ million domestic haul might be just out of reach, but a $550-575 million finish seems extremely doable. Wherever it goes, Deadpool & Wolverine has already secured an impressive domestic box office record. As of today, it is officially the biggest R-rated movie ever domestically. It surpassed The Passion of the Christ, which held onto that record for 20 years. By the end of today, Deadpool & Wolverine will become the first R-rated feature in history to crack $400 million domestically (without adjusting for inflation).

Here's a fun fact for you readers: six of the last eight domestic weekends have been topped by movies grossing $75+ million. The number one movie in America over four of those eight weekends grossed $97+ million. That’s the kind of steady success we absolutely need at the box office and speaks volumes to how much the marketplace has already improved since the dreary days of May 2024. Best of all, not every penny at the box office has gone just to those mighty chart-toppers. Other films have flourished as well...like a certain Lee Isaac Chung directorial effort.

Those tornadoes kept on swirling up audiences this weekend as Twisters grossed another $22.6 million for a 35% dip. After 17 days of domestic release, Twisters has grossed a robust $195.6 million. Sometime this week, it’ll become only the fifth 2024 movie to hit $200 million domestically. Hitting $250 million in North America looks assured for this smash-hit disaster movie. I don’t think anyone saw Twisters becoming this big of a hit, what a boon for the disaster movie genre. Will this inspire some misguided Lionsgate/STX executive to finally green-light that Brad Peyton Black Hole movie announced back in 2017? Only time will tell.

Now we finally come to a wide-release newcomer, Trap, which only grossed $15.6 million this weekend. That's one of Shyamalan's weakest box-office openings, with his three worst domestic launches all occurring in the last three years. Much like Michael Bay experienced with AmbuLAnce two years ago, Shyamalan's name just isn't the automatic draw it was 20 years ago. It happens, that no filmmaker can remain a brand name unto itself permanently. However, the problems here went deeper than Trap’s filmmaker.

Whereas Universal rampantly promoted Shyamalan’s 2021 feature Old, Warner Bros. bungled the release of Trap. Though the studio cut together a great trailer for the movie, Warner Bros. bizarrely failed to capitalize on Trap’s imminent opening in the last few weeks. There were no promotions for the movie at the San Diego Comic-Con, eye-catching promotional stunts tied into the film’s concert backdrop were never executed, and there were no advanced critic screenings to get the word out about this original project. With a C+ CinemaScore and a deluge of new theatrical releases on the way, it’s doubtful Trap will rebound from this disappointing opening. What a dreadful summer it’s been for Warner Bros. Pictures.

In its fifth weekend, Despicable Me 4 made another $11.2 million (a 23% ease from last weekend) for a $313.9 million domestic gross. Interestingly, this sequel had a narrowly better fourth weekend than Despicable Me 2 and remains roughly 4% behind that hit’s domestic gross at the same point. Rounding out the top five in its eighth weekend of release was Inside Out 2 with another $6.7 million for an outstanding $626.9 million domestically. Having now surpassed The Last Jedi and The Avengers on the all-time domestic box office charts, Inside Out 2 is now the 12th biggest movie ever in North America without adjusting for inflation.

Harold and the Purple Crayon, finally entering theaters 18 months after its original January 2023 release date, grossed just $6 million this weekend. That was down 45% from the opening weekend of the last Sony/Columbia Pictures kid's book adaptation, Lyle Lyle Crocodile. Among family-friendly adventure movies, Harold opened worse than Mars Needs Moms, The Kid Who Would Be King and 2007's Nancy Drew. That’s what happens when you make an adaptation of a famous children’s book that bears no resemblance to its source material and is anchored by an actor (Zachary Levi) who isn’t anywhere close to a movie star. This $40 million budgeted disaster will likely end its domestic haul with a few pennies more than $20 million.

Longlegs continued its impressive box office run by adding another $4.1 million this weekend for a $66.9 million domestic total. Dropping 39% from the last frame, Longlegs continues to hold nicely even with major new horror movies and blockbusters in the marketplace. Only a little under $11 million to go and it’ll outgross every A24 movie in history domestically. Fellow horror movie holdover A Quiet Place: Day One grossed another $1.4 million this weekend, a 55% decline from the last frame. This spin-off/prequel has now grossed $137.4

Faith-based Kevin Sorbo star vehicle The Firing Squad is currently undergoing a strange box office phenomenon. Two different weekend box office figures have been reported for the feature. As of this writing, The-Numbers, without offering daily box office figures, claims the title is projected to gross $1.6 million in this frame. Deadline, meanwhile, is reporting a $910,000 figure. I am reporting the latter figure as its current estimated box office opening because The Firing Squad, per Box Office Mojo, did officially have a $330,000 opening day. Unless this thing is experiencing The Greatest Showman-style legs, there's no way a $330,000 opening day translated into a $1.6 million opening weekend!

So! The Firing Squad (per Deadline) opened to a middling $910,000 from 803 locations this weekend. This feature’s debut continues the cold streak faith-based movies have been on this summer between the failures of Disciples in the Moonlight, Sound of Hope, Sight, and other titles. One could tell distributors Atlas Distribution and Epoch Studios were getting nervous about The Firing Squad's box office potential on the film's opening day when they sent out a press release announcing, "Christian Media Personalities Praise The Firing Squad". Within the email was a quote from former Governor Mike Huckabee declaring "If people don't go out and see and support this movie, shame on them..." If you have to shame people to get them into the theater, then maybe nobody wants to see your movie. Expect The Firing Squad to flame out rather quickly and become one of the worst-performing wide releases of summer 2024 that didn't hail from Sony Pictures Classics.

Deadline also reports that this weekend's top 10 was rounded out by the Studio Ghibli Fest screening of Ponyo over this past Saturday and Sunday, which Fathom Events is projecting grosses $800,000 for the weekend. Just outside the top ten was the Punjabi feature Daru Na Peenda Hove, which grossed $616,000 from just 118 theaters. Bad Boys: Ride or Die, in its first weekend not in wide release, grossed another $600,000 for a hearty $192.9 million domestic total.

Undoubtedly, box office geeks everywhere are going "how many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?" over Sony Pictures Classics once again botching the release of an acclaimed arthouse film. After one failed attempt to launch an arthouse movie immediately in wide release this summer (Daddio), Sony Classics went down this road again this weekend by dropping Kneecap in 703 locations. The result? A disappointing $492,400 for a downright disastrous $700 per theater average. Scoring only an 18% better opening weekend than Daddio, Kneecap once again reflected the importance of giving arthouse titles slow and steady theatrical runs. Kneecap is an excellent movie, but it has no movie stars or famous source material to immediately draw in views. It needed a more careful release strategy, which Sony Classics utterly failed to execute. And people wonder why I boo and hiss anytime I see the Sony Pictures Classics logo!

Didi took in $440,014 this frame at 47 locations for a $9,362 per theater average. With $728,000 from just ten days of limited release, Didi is playing like a pre-COVID summertime indie hit. The Fabulous Four collapsed in its second weekend of wide release, grossing another $418,392 for a terrible $2.3 million domestic total. Arthouse newcomer CatVideoFest 2024 meowed its way to $281,000 from 106 theaters for a solid per-theater average of $2,653.  Barring an unexpectedly massive drop next weekend, this feature looks poised to handily surpass CatVideoFest 2023’s $608,599 gross, which is currently the highest-grossing entry in this saga dating back to 2019. Sing Sing, meanwhile, expanded into 18 locations and grossed $172,925 for a $9,607 per theater average and a domestic haul of $534,690. A24 is taking this one slow and steady, but it seems to be paying off now that Sing Sing has had four consecutive weekends with $9,400+ per theater averages.

Widow Clicquot, meanwhile, continued its quietly solid box office run this weekend by going up 5% from the last frame. Grossing another $125,000, this Vertical Entertainment release has now grossed $618,874 after 17 days of release despite never playing in more than 102 theaters. It looks quite likely this one will exceed the $1 million mark in its domestic run. See, Sony Classics, what you can accomplish with theatrical runs that aren't just confined to one weekend? Dark Feathers: Dance of the Geisha opened to $21,580 from eight locations for a $2,698 per-theater average, while War Game premiered at $15,289 at a single theater. Finally, Sebastian debuted in three theaters and scored $12,035 for a $4,012 per theater average.

The top 10 movies this weekend grossed $166 million, down roughly 4% from this same weekend in 2024. This frame was up 16% from this same weekend in 2019 and more than doubled the first weekend of August 2022. Impressively, this was the fourth-biggest August weekend in history at the domestic box office. The first four days of August 2024 have already cracked $195 million, a fantastic launch to the final month of summer 2024. Best of all, August 2024’s biggest potential moneymakers haven’t launched yet. It Ends With Us and Alien: Romulus is tracking quite strongly and, combined with Deadpool & Wolverine’s sustained box office energy, could make this a rare August to crack $850 million domestically.