'Trap' opened in third with $15 million while 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' misfired

All hail Marvel Jesus.

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds (as the Merc With a Mouth who dubs himself the messiah of his world) and Hugh Jackman, has provided another jolt to the box office, collecting a stellar $97 million in its second weekend of release.

These ticket sales, down just 53% from its mighty $211 million debut, rank as the eighth-biggest second weekend in domestic box office history. Only billion-dollar behemoths “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($149 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($147 million) and “Infinity War” ($114 million), “Black Panther” ($111 million), “Jurassic World” ($106 million), “The Avengers” ($103 million) and this June’s “Inside Out 2” ($101 million) have enjoyed bigger sophomore outings. “Deadpool & Wolverine” bypassed last year’s sensation “Barbie,” which previously held the No. 8 slot with $93 million in its second weekend.

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So far, “Deadpool & Wolverine” has grossed $395 million in North America and $824 million globally, surpassing the first two “Deadpool” installments — with $783 million and $786 million respectively — after two weekends of release. The comic book sequel is now the second-biggest movie of 2024 behind “Inside Out 2” ($1.555 billion worldwide) and the third-biggest R-rated movie of all time following “Joker” ($1.07 billion) and “Oppenheimer” ($975 million). It’s expected to cross the coveted $1 billion mark in a matter of days.

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With “Deadpool & Wolverine’s” continued domination, two newcomers failed to break through at the box office. M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap,” a twisted thriller starring Josh Hartnett as a wholesome father who moonlights as a serial killer, opened in third place with $15 million from 3,181 venues. Meanwhile, Sony’s kid-friendly “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” cratered in sixth place, earning a disastrous $6 million from 3,325 theaters.

“Trap” is one of the softer openings of Shyamalan’s career. His prior two films, 2023’s “Knock at the Cabin” and 2021’s “Old,” also started slow with $14.1 million and $16.8 million, respectively. While “Old,” a mystery about a beach that rapidly ages its inhabitants, managed to rebound with $48 million domestically and $90 million globally, “Knock at the Cabin,” a thriller about a family that’s held hostage while vacationing at a remote cabin, tapped out with just $35 million domestically and $54 million globally.

Shyamalan, the director of “The Sixth Sense,” “Split” and “Unbreakable,” takes the unusual step of self-financing his movies, with Warner Bros. around to handle distribution. “Trap” cost roughly $30 million, which means that Shyamalan needs the film to hold more like “Old” than “Knock at the Cabin” to justify its budget. However, reviews and audience scores were muted (“Trap” holds a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and “C+” on CinemaScore), which may not help with word of mouth.

“This start is not on the level of recent Shyalaman films,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Overseas business has been good-not-great for Shyalaman, and for the genre. ‘Trap’ will need strong ancillary business to break even.”

“Harold and the Purple Crayon,” adapted from the children’s book of the same name, trailed behind fellow family films “Despicable Me 4” (in fourth place with $11.2 million in its fifth weekend of release) and “Inside Out 2” (in fifth place with $6.7 million in its eighth weekend of release) on domestic charts, despite those movies already playing on the big screen for over a month. “Harold,” a live-action/animated hybrid movie featuring Zachary Levi as a man who uses a magical marker to bring his drawings to life, carries a $40 million production budget. So, Sony is banking on the film resonating with family audiences during the remainder of summer. Though critics hated “Harold and the Purple Crayon” (it has a 28% “rotten” average on Rotten Tomatoes), the few moviegoers who bought tickets were far more enthusiastic, as evidenced by the “A-” grade on CinemaScore.

Universal’s disaster epic “Twisters” cinched the No. 2 spot on domestic charts with $22 million in its third outing. The film, led by Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, has been a box office force with $194 million domestically and $274.4 million globally to date.

Thanks to several overperforming blockbusters, July generated $1.2 billion in domestic revenue, marking the first billion-dollar month since July 2023 when “Barbenheimer” fever was sweeping the nation. Yet a string of recent hits, including “Inside Out 2,” “Twisters,” “Despicable Me 4” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” wasn’t enough to shake the domestic box office out of its slump. Overall North American returns for 2024 remain 16.5% behind 2023, according to Comscore.

“July was a knockout, delivering big and pushing the month over the $1 billion mark domestically,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. He doesn’t expect the next few weeks to be as strong, adding that July’s “hit films will now bear the burden of bolstering the month of August as we head toward the summer season finish line.”

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