Magicians Pull Off a Box Office Heist
The third instalment in the popular crime heist series, Now You See Me: Now You Don't, has successfully conjured the number one position at the North American box office. Industry estimates released on Sunday confirmed that the film about a group of Robin Hood-style illusionists outperformed its weekend competition.
A Winning Formula for the Franchise
According to Exhibitor Relations, the Lionsgate production, which reunites stars Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Woody Harrelson, magicked its way to an impressive $21.3 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday. This latest chapter, which first introduced the original Four Horsemen to audiences back in 2013, also introduces three new younger magicians: Ariana Greenblatt, Dominic Sessa, and Justice Smith.
David A. Gross, an analyst at Franchise Entertainment Research, highlighted the rarity of such success for a third film in a heist series. "There aren't a lot of crime heist series that get to episode 3, simply because it's so hard to keep these stories fresh," Gross stated. He added, "It's serialized storytelling and there's good material like this on TV. Still, these characters are connecting -- these are very good figures."
The Runner-Up and Other Contenders
Landing in second place was Paramount's The Running Man, a fresh adaptation of Stephen King's dystopian novel about a deadly game show. Fronted by Glen Powell, the film opened with a solid $17 million in the US and Canada. This release comes 38 years after the loose 1987 adaptation that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gross commented on the long gap, noting, "That's a long time, and the storyline is showing some wear."
In third place was Disney's 20th Century Studios' Predator: Badlands, which experienced a significant drop after its record start, earning $13 million. The film, featuring Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as an outcast Predator hero teaming up with an android played by Elle Fanning, fell from its first-place position the previous week.
The rest of the top five was filled by Paramount's romantic drama Regretting You, an adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, at $4 million, and Universal's horror sequel Black Phone 2, starring Ethan Hawke, which scared up $2.7 million.
The weekend's top ten was rounded out by:
- Nuremberg ($2.6 million)
- Keeper ($2.5 million)
- Sarah's Oil ($2.3 million)
- Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc ($1.6 million)
- Bugonia ($1.6 million)
