Deadpool & Wolverine Once Again Rules The Box Office As Alien: Romulus Takes A Big Dip In Its Second Weekend
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Late August is historically not a great time of year for theatrical releases. Between families getting into/ready for the new school year and people taking last minute summer vacations, there isn't a whole lot of attention being paid to the new titles Hollywood is offering on the big screen. That is very much reflected in this weekend's box office results, which sees Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine return to the #1 spot of the Top 10 amid underwhelming results for Fede álvarez's Alien: Romulus, Zo? Kravitz's thriller Blink Twice and Rupert Sanders' remake of The Crow.
Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis:
Deadpool & Wolverine Is Back At The Top Of The Domestic Top 10 Amid An Unfortunate Weekend-To-Weekend Drop For Alien: Romulus
Having earned $577.2 million domestically and $1.211 billion worldwide, Deadpool & Wolverine has been one of the biggest hits of summer 2024, so it's arguably fitting that it will likely close out the blockbuster season as the #1 movie in the United States and Canada. As noted in my column last week, it got pushed out of the spot after winning three consecutive box office crowns with the hyped arrival of Alien: Romulus, but that has proven to be a temporary state of affairs.
Because Deadpool & Wolverine has already earned the title of "Biggest R-rated movie of all time," the big box office milestones that it has in front of it are in regard to its place among Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, and it's already firmly one of the franchise's biggest titles ever. Having earned more than both Joe and Anthony Russo's Captain America: Civil War ($1.152 billion) and Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.133 billion), it's presently the eighth highest grossing MCU movie of all time, and it will soon surpass Shane Black's Iron Man 3 ($1.215 billion). This is despite having the supposed "handicap" of a restricted rating.
We won't be getting another title from the canon this year, but it sets a pretty high bar for the four upcoming Marvel movies set to arrive in 2025: Julius Onah's Captain America: Brave New World, Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts, Matt Shakman's Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Blade starring Mahershala Ali.
While it is unquestionably a huge box office success, Deadpool & Wolverine won't likely wear one particular feather in its cap, which is "Biggest Movie of 2024." That particular superlative still belongs to Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2 (which you'll note is likely spending its last weeks in the domestic Top 10). The Pixar blockbuster has a sizable lead in worldwide box office numbers, as it has grossed $1.649 billion to date.
Unfortunately, the reason why Deadpool & Wolverine was able to reclaim the top spot at the box office is because Alien: Romulus didn't have a terribly great sophomore weekend. The new sci-fi horror movie did well in its debut, with final tallies having it earning $42 million in its first Friday-to-Sunday (the thirteenth biggest opening of the year), and it earned strong pre-release buzz from critics, but that isn't presently translating into sustained success in the late weeks of the summer.
Alien: Romulus earned $16.2 million over the last three days in the United States and Canada, which is a grimace-worthy 61 percent weekend-to-weekend drop (for those who don't regularly follow box office reporting, the general hope is for that number to be in the low 50s). That slowdown is likely going to curtail hopes that the film could ultimately rank as the biggest film in the Alien franchise domestically (Ridley Scott's Prometheus holds that title, having made $126.5 million in 2012).
The silver lining is that the film is doing big business overseas, and to date has made $152.8 million from foreign markets. That brings its worldwide box office total up to $225.4 million, which is only about $13 million short of what Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant earned during its full theatrical run in 2017. Again, however, it looks like outgrossing Prometheus is a long shot, as that movie made $402.4 million before its time on the big screen came to an end.
Neither Blink Twice Nor The Crow Manage To Make Much Of An Impact On The Top 10 As The Two New Titles In Wide Release
Comparing Top 10 charts from this weekend and last weekend, you'll note that the three titles at the top shuffled their order, but it's the same three titles. Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien: Romulus switched spots, and Justin Baldoni's It Ends With Us held on to third place (of note: the drama has joined 2024's Nine Figure Club, having made $120.8 million domestically so far). This minor shakeup is a result of the two newest titles in wide release (a.k.a. in 2,000+ theaters) not making much of a splash.
The directorial debut from Zo? Kravitz and starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum, Blink Twice earned mostly positive marks from critics in the run up to its arrival in theaters on Friday, but that buzz and the promises of a surprise ending didn't directly translate to big ticket sales. The film made $7.3 million this weekend, which was just enough to beat out Alex Kendrick's religious drama The Forge, which made $6.6 million playing in 1,818 locations.
That's not great, but the remake of The Crow did considerably worse. As I noted in my CinemaBlend review of the dark action film, this is a project that spent more than a decade in development, but it ultimately got a very limited marketing push and critics have torn it apart. The movie starring Bill Skarsg?rd and FKA twigs managed to only make $4.6 million in the last three days, which wasn't enough to surpass Henry Selick's Coraline (an anniversary release playing in its second weekend) in the Top 10 rankings.
Looking ahead to next week, it looks like August is going to end with a whimper, but I'll be back next Sunday with coverage of the box office results. Meanwhile, you can get a preview of all the films set to arrive in theaters this fall with our 2024 Movie Release Calendar.
