Overview
- Thursday previews came in at about $2.1 million for Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and $1.9 million for The Running Man, setting up a close race for No. 1.
- Both openings are projected in the $20 million to $25 million range this weekend, with industry chatter giving Lionsgate’s franchise the better shot at the top spot.
- Now You See Me 3 carries a PG-13 rating and sits around 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, while The Running Man is R-rated with a modestly higher 64% score.
- Paramount’s The Running Man cost roughly $110 million and will rely on holiday legs, whereas Lionsgate’s roughly $90 million threequel benefits from a series that has historically earned 67%–80% of its box office overseas and from its foreign-licensing model.
- Both newcomers are tracking to outpace Disney’s Predator: Badlands, which is estimated to land around $18 million to $20 million in its second weekend.