Just like in the movies, Deadpool cannot be killed.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” one of the summer’s biggest films, dominated the box office in a weekend of quiet openings and low attendance as the summer movie season came to a disappointing end.
For the second weekend in a row, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the Marvel blockbuster that broke records and became the best-selling R-rated film of all time, topped the charts, followed by other films released last summer. After six weeks in theaters, the film earned $15.2 million in the U.S. between Friday and Sunday, and is expected to cross the $600 million mark in the U.S. after the Labor Day holiday on Monday. The superhero film starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will be one of only 16 titles to reach that milestone.
“Reagan,” a biopic starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president of the United States, was the only new film to compete with films released earlier this summer. Beating expectations, the first feature film about President Ronald Reagan earned $7.4 million over the three-day weekend, with an estimated cumulative total of $9.2 million, including Monday screenings.
Audiences responded positively to the film, giving it an A CinemaScore and a 98% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics were less receptive, giving it a 19% rating and rating it poor on the popular ratings site. It ranked #4 in the ratings.
The summer movie season, which runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, has been full of surprises, misses and overachievers. “Deadpool,” “Despicable Me 4,” “Inside Out 2” and “Twisters” generated impressive grosses and stayed on the charts for several weeks after their release, with all four titles cracking the top 10 over Labor Day weekend.
“If you were to chart the most unpredictable summer ever, 2024 might be it,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “May was a challenge, but June, July and early August really delivered.”
Cumulative summer box office totaled more than $3.6 billion domestically, down 10% from the 2023 season, which grossed $4 billion, and could likely be attributed to the box office boom of “Barbenheimer,” which drew crowds to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” last summer.
The end of the season brought what Dergarabedian describes as a “stranglehold” of familiar summer hits on the box office charts, with “Alien: Romulus” and “It Ends With Us” rounding out the top three for the second weekend in a row. Six of the weekend’s top 10 films had been in theaters for three weeks or more.
Alien: Romulus took second place, grossing $9.3 million between Friday and Sunday. The sci-fi horror film directed by Fede Álvarez and starring Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced and David Jonsson, earned $88.8 million in the United States.
“It Ends With Us” finished third for the third consecutive weekend, taking in just over $7.4 million, slightly ahead of “Reagan.” The Sony film, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film, is expected to reach a total of $136 million in the U.S. after the weekend.
To everyone’s surprise, “Twisters” rounded out the top five with $7.2 million in its seventh week of release. Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones star in the sequel to the 1996 hit “Twister.”
“Afraid,” a horror thriller with an AI villain, earned $3.7 million in one of the weekend’s modest openings, with Sony forecasting $4.5 million in revenue through Monday. It came in ninth place on the weekend chart. The film, produced by Blumhouse Productions and Colombia Pictures, follows John Cho and Katherine Waterston as a couple whose family is chosen to test a new AI assistant. Unsurprisingly, the technology spirals out of control and threatens the lives of the family and those around them.
Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, “Blink Twice,” had a soft release the last weekend of August and grossed $4.7 million in its second weekend.
In another quiet launch, “1992,” which centers on a turbulent Los Angeles amid deadly riots during the title year, earned a meager $1.4 million between Friday and Sunday, with distributor Lionsgate projecting the total to reach $1.6 million after Labor Day. The film stars Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood and Ray Liotta.
The drama is the third slow launch Lionsgate has had at the unofficial end of summer. The video game adaptation “Borderlands” and a remake of “The Crow” both underperformed in August.
“Slingshot,” another new sci-fi film starring Laurence Fishburne and Casey Affleck, grossed $485,282 from 845 screens. Distributor Bleecker Street estimates the film will gross $572,763 after the holidays.
Estimated ticket sales for U.S. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Sunday, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Deadpool and Wolverine,” $15.2 million.
2. “Alien: Romulus,” $9.3 million.
3. “It Ends With Us,” $7.4 million.
4. “Reagan,” $7.4 million.
5. “Twisters,” $7.2 million.
6. “Blink Twice,” $4.7 million.
7. “The Forge,” $4.6 million.
8. “Despicable Me 4,” $4.1 million.
9. “Afraid,” $3.7 million.
10. “Vice-versa 2”, $2.8 million.
