Box office: ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ returns to #1 in tight race against ‘Alien: Romulus’

Two new movies just barely cracked the top 5 in one of the worst weekends of the summer with no movie making more than $17 million. Read on for the weekend box office report.

“Deadpool and Wolverine” returned to #1 with an estimated $18.3 million, down just 39% in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $577.2 million. That’s not only the second-best showing for the year after Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” but it’s also passed last year’s #2 movie, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” to become the 16th highest-grossing domestic blockbuster ever. Marvel Studios’ only 2024 release has passed $1.2 billion worldwide with another $20.2 million made overseas this weekend.

Disney’s other current release, “Alien: Romulus,” took a massive second weekend plunge, dropping to second place with $16.2 million (down 61%) to bring its North American total to $72.6 million. It’s closing in on 2017’s “Alien: Covenant” to become the fourth-highest movie in the “Alien” franchise, and likely to become the second-highest in the series in the coming weeks. It added another $41.6 million internationally this weekend for an overseas total of $152.8 million and a global total of $225.4 million.

SEE Grab the popcorn and sound off in our movie forums

“It Ends with Us” passed the $100 million mark domestically this past week and $200 million worldwide, as it added another $11.9 million this weekend to take third place, down 50% from last weekend but hitting $120.8 million after just three weeks in theaters. Blake Lively‘s hit drama added another $22.3 million internationally to bring its global total to $242.6 million. Surely, Sony is already looking at how to adapt Colleen Hoover‘s follow-up novel, “It Starts With Us,” as a sequel.

Amazon MGM opened Zoë Kravitz‘s directorial debut, the thriller “Blink Twice,” starring Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie, into 3,067 theaters on Friday with reviews being generally positive. It brought in $820k in Thursday previews and then $2.9 million on Friday (including previews), racking up an estimated $7.3 million to open in fourth place for the weekend.

The faith-based drama, “The Forge,” was released by Sony’s Affirm Films imprint into 1,818 theaters on Friday. Directed by Alex Kendrick (“Courageous”), the drama made $2.4 million on Friday, including $600k from Thursday previews. It ended up opening in fifth place with an estimated $6.6 million, a strong showing considering it opened in less than 2,000 theaters. “The Forge” received an A+ CinemaScore, which is fairly typical for faith-based films.

One of the summer’s bigger hits, the reboot of “Twisters” added another $6.2 million (down 38%) this weekend, to take sixth place with $248.7 million grossed domestically, keeping it in fifth place for the year.

The big bomb of the weekend and possibly the year was Lionsgate’s attempt at rebooting “The Crow” with Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs, which opened in 2,752 theaters after receiving horrid reviews and ending up with just 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was little surprise after Lionsgate embargoed reviews until Thursday evening, but considering how long this project has been gestating, it’s a rare case when bringing back a known commodity or IP just didn’t do much either for fans or moviegoers in general.

SEE 2024 box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

After making $650,000 in Thursday previews – less than “Blink Twice” – “The Crow” ended up with just $2 million on Friday, behind the two other new wide releases, and took in an estimated $4.6 million its opening weekend to open in eighth place.

Both “The Crow” and “Blink Twice” received “B-” CinemaScores, which is not a good sign for either getting decent word-of-mouth or having much in terms of legs.

In fact, “The Crow” ended up making less than the 15th anniversary “Coraline” re-release by LAIKA Studios and Fathom Events, which added another $5 million this weekend (down 48%) as the re-release has grossed $22 million, while also putting the stop-motion animated movie over the $100 million mark.

Universal’s animated sequel “Despicable Me 4” ends its run in the top 10 with another $4.4 million to take ninth place with $348.3 million domestic.

New distributor Magenta Light Studios released JT Mollner‘s action-thriller “Strange Darling” into 1,135 theaters on Friday and after making $442k in its opening day, it ended up with an estimated $1,144,182, averaging $1,008 per location.

Nathan Silver‘s comedy “Between the Temples,” starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, was released by Sony Pictures Classics into 576 theaters, but it has yet to report any box office for the weekend. There also has been no reported box office for Lionsgate’s other new release, the crime-comedy “Greedy People,” though it may not have been as wide as previously reported. We’ll add these numbers if and when they’re reported.

A big difference-maker in the Gold Derby box office prediction game were the 22 players who predicted that “Deadpool and Wolverine” would take #1 again and push “Alien: Romulus” to #2. Over 100 players thought that “The Crow” would crack the top 5, which wasn’t to be, and just five players predicted “The Forge” would open at #5, so we’ll have to see if we get any perfect scores this week.

Exactly six players got perfect scores in the Aug. 16 game with “napierslogs” earning the most points with 25,014, although two leaderboard regulars, “Micah” and “MellowDrama” scored over 30,000 points while only going five-for-six.

Next weekend is Labor Day, and there are a ton of even lower-key releases than this week’s offerings. Check back on Wednesday for Gold Derby’s weekend preview to see what’s coming out.

SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions