Welcome to the dog days of summer.
This weekend at the box office will be sluggish as two new releases — director Zoe Kravitz’s twisted thriller “Blink Twice” and “The Crow” reboot starring Bill Skarsgård — target middling debuts. “Blink Twice” is aiming for $7 million to $8 million from 3,000 venues while “The Crow” looks to bring in $6 million to $9 million from 2,500 theaters.
Despite the pair of newcomers, last weekend’s champ “Alien: Romulus” will duel with “Deadpool & Wolverine” for the top spot on North American charts. The R-rated “Romulus” is projected to add $16 million to $19 million in its sophomore outing, declining 55% to 60% from its $41 million debut. Meanwhile, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is targeting a similar $16 million to $18 million range in its fifth weekend of release. Marvel’s superhero adventure is the second-biggest movie of the year with $546 million in North America and $1.14 billion worldwide.
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“It Ends With Us,” too, will likely pace ahead of “Blink Twice” and “The Crow” as the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s literary sensation aims to bring in $10 million to $12 million in its third frame. So far, “It Ends With Us” has grossed $100 million domestically and $187 million globally.
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“Blink Twice” is the directorial debut of Kravitz, known for her roles in “Fantastic Beasts,” “The Batman,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Kimi” and Hulu’s series “High Fidelity.” The R-rated psychological thriller has mostly positive reviews (it holds an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes) and follows a cocktail waitress (Naomi Ackie) who meets a tech billionaire (Channing Tatum, Kravitz’s fiancee) and travels to his private island for a luxurious party where things begin to take a sinister turn. “Blink Twice” reportedly carries a $20 million budget, so it should be decently positioned in its theatrical run even if the film doesn’t hit double digits in its box office debut. Amazon MGM is distributing the movie in the U.S. while Warner Bros. is handling the theatrical rollout in the rest of the world.
Lionsgate is backing “The Crow,” a grizzly reimagining of the graphic novel-turned-1994 film. Skarsgård plays the titular Crow, a murdered musician who is resurrected to avenge the deaths of himself and his fiancee (FKA Twigs). The film, which carries an R rating, cost $50 million to produce. Unless “The Crow” beats expectations, it’ll be the second consecutive miss for Lionsgate following this August’s “Borderlands.” The video game adaptation, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Ariana Greenblatt, is among the year’s biggest flops with just $13.6 million in North America and $18 million worldwide after two weeks of release. In the case of “The Crow,” Lionsgate is only on the hook for distribution after acquiring U.S. rights for roughly $10 million.
Despite the late-summer surge from “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “Twisters” and “Despicable Me 4,” overall domestic revenues are stubbornly 16% behind last year and 28% behind 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, according to Comscore. Don’t expect late August releases to do much to close that gap.
