In a shocking box office surprise, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t won the weekend box office over Edgar Wright’s The Running Man starring Glen Powell. Deadline is reporting that Now You See Me took the number one spot at the box office with an estimated $21.3 million opening weekend. Even more impressively, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t scored $75.5 million at the global box office, with $19.2 million from China. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t has a reported budget of $90 million.
The Running Man opened at number two at the box office with $17 million, lower than the $20 million projections. The movie grossed $11.2 million internationally, bringing its worldwide opening weekend to $28.2 million. In other box office news, despite positive reviews, Predator: Badlands dropped by 68% in its second weekend. The movie has made $66.3 million domestically and $136.3 million worldwide. Fellow newcomer Keeper opened to $2 million to land the number seven spot.
The Calm Before the ‘Wicked: For Good’ Storm’
Despite taking the number one spot at the weekend box office, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is actually the franchise’s lowest opening weekend. Now You See Me, which opened on May 31, 2013, opened to $29.3 million. Now You See Me 2 opened at $22.3 million over the weekend of Jun. 10, 2016. Now You See Me went on to gross $351 million worldwide, while Now You See Me 2 grossed $334 million, suggesting the franchise has wide international appeal, which is good news for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. A fourth film in the franchise is already in development.
The Running Man actually managed to be director Edgar Wright’s second-biggest opening weekend, behind Baby Driver‘s $20.5 million opening weekend in June 2017. Wright’s third biggest opening weekend is actually Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, whose $10.6 million weekend total was seen as a disappointment back in 2010. The Running Man, though, is Wright’s most expensive movie, with a reported budget of $110 million, so it will need to make up a lot of ground over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Variety reports that the weekend box office totaled $75 million, coming out $3 million ahead of the same weekend in 2024 that saw the Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans-led comedy, Red One. Similar to last year, the second weekend of November is the calm before the storm, as Wicked: For Good is tracking to have one of the biggest opening weekends of 2025. That will then be followed by Zootopia 2 over the Thanksgiving weekend, another potential blockbuster. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, The Running Man, and Predator: Badlands are certainly hoping to take advantage of the extended holiday window before Avatar: Fire and Ash opens.
