Deadpool & Wolverine snarks its way back to the top of the box office as summer 2024 winds down

For the first time since May 2024's final weekend, no movies in the marketplace (either holdovers or new releases) grossed $40+ million. Soon Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and a new Joker movie will reignite the box office. For now, though, the final two August 2024 frames will be quiet affairs. This particular weekend was muted enough that a month-old superhero movie returned to the top of the box office. In its fifth weekend of release, Deadpool & Wolverine sliced its way back to the top spot of the box office with a mighty $18.3 million, a 39% dip from last weekend. This one's such an obvious box office smash at this point that there's really not much else to say. Right now, Deadpool & Wolverine stands at $577.2 million domestically. It should surpass $600 million domestically by the first weekend of September. Once it does, it'll become only the 16th movie in history to exceed $600 million domestically.

Last weekend’s victor, Alien: Romulus, continued the strangely frontloaded history of the Alien saga. Thankfully, it didn't fall anywhere near as ominously as Alien: Covenant's 71% plunge from 2017. This frame, Alien: Romulus made another $16.2 million, a 61% decline from last weekend. Over 10 days, it's now grossed $72.6 million. Since there's a three-day holiday weekend coming next frame, Romulus should still creep past the $100 million mark domestically. If it does, it'll become only the second title ever in the Alien saga (following Prometheus) to cross that threshold.

It Ends with Us kept chugging along quite nicely in its North American box office run with another $11.8 million, a 50% decrease from the last frame. After 17 days, this massive hit has grossed $120.8 million. It should get past $150 million domestically thanks to the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend. It Ends with Us is currently the 11th biggest movie of 2024 domestically.

Despite a hefty theater count and a solid marketing push, Blink Twice only opened to $7.3 million. Among thriller/suspense movies, that's narrowly above the North American bows of Joy Ride and Lucky Number Slevin, not an ideal box office company. Zoe Kravitz's directorial debut was made for just $20 million, though. Plus, Amazon MGM Studios has been on a recent box office hot streak thanks to titles like The Beekeeper, The Boys in the Boat, and Challengers. A mild disappointment like Blink Twice will go down easy. Now, if Amazon’s Red One tanks in November, that could be a costly flop…

Writer/director Alex Kendrick has made a name for himself in the world of cheapie Christian movies thanks to his massive sleeper hits Fireproof and War Room. From 2008 to 2019, each of his faith-based dramas made at least $33.4 million at the domestic box office. That haul looks a bit out of reach of his latest title, The Forge, though it still opened to an okay $6.6 million. Debuting 19% behind 2019's Overcomer (and a little bit behind Fireproof from 2008!), it did outperform the North American bows of other 2024 faith-based movies like Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot and Ordinary Angels.

It's been a bit of a rough year for the faith-based film despite the subgenre being so ubiquitous on the silver screen. An oversaturation of the market, and a dearth of compelling plots for this audience, have all contributed to the lack of Heaven is For Real/The Shack/God’s Not Dead-level sleeper hits. Still, The Forge was made cheap and Kendrick movies tend to hold well, this one will probably be among the most profitable 2024 faith-based movies.

Twisters eased 38% this weekend to add another $6.2 million to an impressive domestic haul now standing at $248.6 million. Having now done more than three times its opening weekend, Twisters will wrangle up a final domestic total just under or above $270 million. In the second weekend of its theatrical re-release, Coraline grossed another $5 million, a 49% decline from the last frame. With $106.9 million domestically across all its theatrical runs, Coraline is now the biggest stop-motion animated movie ever in North America, surpassing Chicken Run for that honor!

Shocking absolutely nobody, The Crow cratered this weekend with a dismal $4.6 million bow. Absolutely staggering to consider how bad this debut is among all superhero movies. It’s beneath The Phantom's opening from 1996, just $400,000 ahead of Punisher: War Zone (another Lionsgate film, just like The Crow), and only $700,000 above Flash Gordon's opening from December 1980. Dear lord, the 2024 Crow even made less than The Spirit back in December 2008, Supergirl in November 1982, AND The Crow: City of Angels from August 1996!! Nobody wanted another Crow remake, especially one that looked this dreary and devoid of appeal to younger moviegoers. None of the leads were stars. The marketing was dreadful. Plus, why would anyone go to this movie for R-rated superhero antics when the zippier Deadpool & Wolverine existed in the marketplace? A tremendously miscalculated enterprise from the ground up.

Lionsgate is only on the hook for acquiring this movie for $10 million (and presumably marketing costs) so this won’t bleed the studio dry. Still, there could’ve been infinitely better ways to spend that $10 million! The studios dropped nine new movies in 2024 that opened in at least 350 theaters each. Only one (The Strangers: Chapter 1) exceeded $30 million domestically. Exempting the COVID-affected years of 2020-2022, 2024 is likely on track to become the worst-performing year for Lionsgate at the domestic box office since 2011. Executives at this outfit I'm sure cannot wait for the year of The Crow and Borderlands to be over. Still, it should be noted that Lionsgate, like so much of Hollywood, is eschewing the kind of original "risky" movies that gave them success in the first place. Taking a chance on Saw, Now You See Me, The Hunger Games and John Wick produced Lionsgate's biggest franchises. Naturally, Lionsgate is now focused on milking those franchises to the very end while also creating sequels or remakes of The Blair Witch Project, Highlander, and Naruto. A brand name cannot guarantee good box office, as The Crow just demonstrated. Yet Lionsgate continues on, pursuing "IP" while ignoring the kind of titles that informed its greatest box office successes. This is a weird industry folks...just look at how somebody thought the 2024 Crow would work as a summertime blockbuster for proof!

Despicable Me 4 continued its impressive box office run with an eighth weekend haul of $4.4 million. That's a 30% dip from the last frame, making this the fourth weekend in a row Despicable Me 4 has had a weekend-to-weekend decline of 30% or less. Domestically, this smash hit has grossed $348.2 million. Still in wide release in its 11th weekend of release, Inside Out 2 made another $2.1 million this weekend for a $646.3 million domestic haul. For the record, Inside Out 2 is now the 11th biggest movie ever in North America. If Disney does its annual theatrical re-release of a summertime Pixar movie over next Labor Day weekend, then this one should have just enough juice in the tank to surpass Jurassic World's $652.3 million haul. That would allow this Pixar sensation to grab the tenth biggest movie ever domestically slot. Meanwhile, Inside Out 2 also cracked the $1 billion mark overseas this frame. It's now only the second animated film ever (following the 2019 Lion King remake) and just the 12th movie in history to exceed $1+ billion internationally.

Moving outside of the top ten, Trap eased 49% to gross an additional $1.77 million for a $38.5 million domestic total. Moving on to another newcomer, debuting in 1,135 theaters this weekend was Strange Darling.  Any hopes it would become a big sleeper genre movie hit didn’t pan out as it made only $1.11 million. The debut feature from newbie distributor Magenta Light Pictures, Strange Darling's opening wasn't anything super extraordinary. Any hopes this acclaimed genre film could become the next breakout thriller didn't pan out. Still, it's an original title from a largely unknown filmmaker with a cast consisting of no known performers. Under those circumstances, this bow isn't awful. Also, Strange Darling is fantastic, go and see it on the big screen!

After Daddio and Kneecap flopped, Sony Pictures Classics rebounded a tad with Between the Temples, which opened to $677,900 from 576 theaters. Not an outstanding debut (its per-theater average was just below $1,200) but not bad either. It may even be able to expand its theater count next weekend. Borderlands fell off a cliff this weekend after losing 1,978 theaters. It tumbled 80% to gross another $485,000 for a $15.1 million domestic total. A final North American haul just south of $17 million is in the cards. Didi eased 36% this weekend to add $470,000 to a domestic gross that now stands at $3.6 million. In its second weekend of wide release, My Penguin Friend grossed $454,000 for a domestic total just north of $2 million. At least it'll get past Gigi & Nate's $2.2 million domestic cume, that's the best you can say about this one.

Meanwhile, Longlegs kept on going with another $320,590 (a 54% drop from the last frame), bringing it up to $73.5 million. Sing Sing expanded to 191 locations this weekend yet dipped 4% from the last frame to gross another $241,118 for a per-theater average of $1,262. Sing Sing has now amassed $1.59 million over its domestic run. Good One took in $52,200 this frame from 31 theaters, bringing it up to $157,200 domestically. Kneecap reportedly (per IndieWire) amassed $27,000 this weekend, enough to get it just past the $1 million mark domestically. No word yet on how indie cinema newcomer Close Your Eyes performed. Lionsgate's other newcomer for the weekend, Greedy People, has also not yet reported grosses.

The top ten movies this weekend grossed an estimated $94.5 million, par for the course for late August and a smidge ahead of this same weekend last year when Gran Turismo topped the marketplace. August 2024 has now shattered the $800 million mark domestically and will surpass the $812.8 million haul of August 2023 either on Tuesday or Wednesday. This month should narrowly exceed $850 million and score a domestic haul on par with August 2018. How outstanding to see domestic monthly box office performances in 2024 reminiscent of pre-COVID figures. Summer 2024, meanwhile, is at $3.49 billion, just a bit ahead of summer 2022's $3.39 billion haul. Hitting $3.6 billion might be just out of reach for summer 2024, but this season's domestic haul won't be too far off from summer 2017's $3.82 billion gross. Not too shabby for a summer season that got off to such a dismal start.