Deadpool & Wolverine reigns as original The Crow director cheers remake's box office failure

After briefly being dethroned by Alien: Romulus, Deadpool & Wolverine returned to the top of the box office this weekend. Earlier this month, the superhero threequel became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, surpassing another comic book film, Joker. Now Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman extend their reign of terror, raking in a total of $1.21 billion worldwide. It's the second-highest-grossing movie of the year behind Inside Out ($1.64 billion), which happens to come in at number 10 on the weekend box office.

The box office results are less inspiring further down the list. According to Variety, it's the third-lowest grossing weekend of the summer, 13.8% behind 2023 and 25.8% behind 2019. The new entries this weekend saw lackluster openings, particularly The Crow, which opened at an uninspiring number eight. (That's beneath even the latest inspiring Christian drama, The Forge, which came in the number five slot.) The reboot, starring Bill Skarsgård, was "formed from countless vestigial limbs that seem to have sprouted like weeds across its entire 15-year development period, never to be trimmed off or reshaped," Matthew Jackson wrote in his D review for The A.V. Club. "The results are bleak, unimaginative, and—despite the presence of a couple of bona fide Good Actors—tiresome to watch. It’s a film that can’t help but remind you of the original, if only because you’ll be longing to rewatch that movie instead."

Alex Proyas, director of the 1994 adaptation—and who has been against the remake for years—was pretty public about his schadenfreude around The Crow's weak opening, posting some negative reviews to Facebook and marking himself "Safe From Seeing Crow 2024," per one meme. "Wow. Box office is a bloodbath," he posted, later adding, "I thought the remake was a cynical cash-grab. Not much cash to grab it seems."

Alex Proyas, director of the original THE CROW, is having the Best Week Ever pic.twitter.com/eI41LsSHJT

— Brett (@BrettRedacted) August 26, 2024

Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut Blink Twice (originally and provocatively titled Pussy Island) fared a bit better, opening at number four. The film garnered $7.3 million domestically and $6.7 million internationally for a total of nearly $14 million—not an overwhelming success but a decent one for a debut original feature with a reported budget of around $20 million (per Variety). In her B review of Blink Twice for The A.V. Club, Brianna Zigler wrote that the movie's "biggest weakness is that it doesn’t feel like Kravitz is adding anything of herself to the film" and instead created a pastiche of her biggest cinematic influences. However, she concluded, "Blink Twice is undeniably palate-cleansing when compared with the surplus of sexless legacy sequels, romance novel adaptations, and dull–looking, repetitive franchise installments. Even if it’s simply drawing inspiration from superior films, Blink Twice uses these touchstones to create something appealing and original. At the very least, it marks an exciting first step for a director who’s got the skill to make something better."

Here's the rest of the weekend box office update from Box Office Mojo: 

1. Deadpool & Wolverine, $18,300,000
2. Alien: Romulus, $16,200,000
3. It Ends With Us, $11,850,000
4. Blink Twice, $7,323,661
5. The Forge, $6,600,000
6. Twisters, $6,200,000
7. Coraline, $5,006,165
8. The Crow, $4,600,000
9. Despicable Me 4, $4,400,000
10. Inside Out, $2,100,000