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Josh Hartnett in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap‘
Warner Bros.
FRIDAY MIDDAY UPDATE: The summer box office rebound continues with, of course, Deadpool & Wolverine, bound to soar, but Warner Bros.’ Trap actually set to seize a bunch of cash. Friday for the M. Night Shyamalan directed is $7.2M (including those $2.2M previews) for what’s a $17M opening in third place at 3,181 theaters.
That’s impressive for the exits this film is getting. What happened? A great trailer for a Shyamalan movie in which the studio and filmmaker weren’t messing around: We’re going to tell you the twist from the onset — Josh Hartnett is the killer. But can he get out of the trap being set for him? The movie, similar to Longlegs, had low awareness and high interest on tracking, and that’s a sweet place for a title to be as indicates the movie can overperform.
High awareness on a movie means a lot of people know about it, but low interest, that’s the worst: Audiences know about the title but have no desire to see it. Hopefully this holds up. Following last year’s Knock at the Cabin for Universal, Warner Bros’ motion picture brass Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy lured Shyamalan and his daughter Ishana with her movie The Watchers over to the Burbank lot. Shyamalan finances all of his own movies, shooting them around his Pennsylvania homestead; the studio then picks up the title as he has full creative control. I hear Trap cost $30M.
Deadpool & Wolverine is seeing $27M in its second Friday, -72% but currently eyeing a first-place second weekend of $90M at 4,230 theaters. There’s still a lot of runway left in this weekend. Look out. At that level, that’s a -57% hold and with a running total by Sunday of $388.4M, making the Marvel Studios/Disney movie the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, beating Mel Gibon’s The Passion of the Christ.
Second place goes to Universal’s third weekend of Twisters, which is standing up amid theD&W monolith with a $6.2M third Friday, 3-day of $21M at 4,009 theaters, -40%, for a running total by Sunday of $193.9M. The sequel has another $47.9M to go before it passes the domestic total ($241.8M) of the original 1996 film.
Fourth place is Illumination/Universal’s fifth weekend of Despicable Me 4 at 3,369 theaters with a $3.2M Friday, 3-day of $10.7M (-27%) and running cume of $313.4M.
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Disney/Pixar’s eighth weekend of Inside Out 2 at 3,615 is making $1.9M today, $6.4M for the Fri-Sun span, -26% for a running total of $626.5M.
And everyone’s breaking Harold’s Crayons as the Sony take of the 1955 Crockett Johnson children’s novel Harold and the Purple Crayon is looking at $2.4M today, $6M for the weekend for this $40M production, in which Sony has less than a 40% stake.
FRIDAY AM: Here’s how Thursday went down at the box office: Deadpool & Wolverine grossed an awesome $18M, easily a R-rated record for a non-preview Thursday. M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap earned $2.2M, the best previews the director has had post-Covid, besting 2021’s Old ($1.5M) and last year’s Knock at the Cabin ($1.45M), while Sony’s Harold and the Purple Crayon, as expected, is nothing to write home about at $725K.
Deadpool & Wolverine ends its first week at $298.5M, which is 35% ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s first week ($220.6M) and 29% ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ first week ($230.8M). Those 2022 movies ended their domestic runs at $453.8M and $411.3M, respectively. As we mentioned, Weekend 2 is wild for the Marvel Studios/Disney Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman movie, with a take of $84M-$100M. D&W‘s second Thursday is -53% from its $38.5M Thursday previews a week ago.
As for Trap, as good as Thursday was, there’s still a notion that the Shyamalan fans showed up, and it’s all downhill from there. The hope is for a $15M-$20M opening. Off the immediate critical reviews of 44% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes (the studio did not screen the film for press and critics) and Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak exits of 2½ stars and 63%, it doesn’t look like the Josh Hartnett creepy-dad movie is going to make it there. Previews played in 3,000 theaters starting at 3 p.m.
Tracking firm Quorum disagreed earlier this AM, saying: “While awareness has been on the soft side for Trap, interest has been very high. At 54%, Trap has the 6th-highest level of interest among all films being tracked by The Quorum, ahead of films like Moana 2, Wicked and Gladiator 2. Projected opening: $20M-$23M.” Whoa.
Interesting to note that Trap‘s preview cash is a tad ahead of Shyamalan’s comeback movie from 2016, Split, which did $2M before a $14.6M Friday and $40M weekend. However, that pic overperformed as moviegoers learned that it was connected to the filmmaker’s 2000 movie Unbreakable, not to mention it had 78% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes reviews and a B+ grade.
Shyamalan’s Old opened at a time when moviegoers were just getting adjusted to returning to cinemas post-Covid, seeing a $6.8M Friday, and a 3-day of $16.8M. The Philly director’s Knock at the Cabin turned in a $5.4M Friday and a $14.1M opening.
Columbia Pictures
Harold and the Purple Crayon‘s previews started at 2 p.m. at 2,745 locations. The pic’s previews are just under Sony’s reviewer- and audience-lambasted late-summer 2017 toon The Emoji Movie, which posted a $900K Thursday night before overperforming to a $10M Friday and $24.5M opening. Harold and the Purple Crayon‘s PostTrak exits were 3 stars with general audiences, 3½ stars with parents and better with kids under 12 at 4 stars. Age breakdown for the kids were 47% between 10-12, 42% 7-9, and 11% under 7. Outlook for Harry: single-digit opening.
Thursday’s top 5 for regular pics in release:
1.) Deadpool & Wolverine (Dis) 4,210 theaters, Thu $18M (-7% from Wednesday), Wk $298.5M/Wk 1
2.) Twisters (Uni) 4,170 theaters, Thu $3.8M (-10%), Wk $53.2M, Total $172.9M/Wk 2
3.) Despicable Me 4 (Uni) 3,610 theaters, Thu $2.3M (-14%), Wk $25.9M, Total $302.7M/Wk 4
4.) Inside Out 2 (Dis) 3,150 theaters, Thu $1.3M (-14%), Wk $15M, Total $620.1M/Wk 7
5.) Longlegs (NEON) 2,732 theaters, Thu $871K (-12%), Wk $10.9M, Total $62.8M/Wk 3