Anticipation is high for big box office results in the final weeks of November 2025, as both Jon M. Chu's Wicked: For Good and Byron Howard and Jared Bush's Zootopia 2 are expected to do big business before and through the Thanksgiving holiday – but Hollywood hoped that the success train could start rolling a bit early with some hyped titles playing this weekend. While not quite as big as the aforementioned musical and animated sequels, Ruben Fleischer's Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and Edgar Wright's The Running Man both hoped to draw movie-goers in over the last three days with their respective brands of splashy adventure. Sadly, things did not go exactly as hoped.
While "flop" is not a word to be tossed around looking at this box office results since Friday, the big new titles didn't get the response that was either hoped for or expected... and adding insult to injury, Dan Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands ended up taking a big plunge as well. You can check out the full Top 10 for this weekend below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t* | $21,300,000 | $21,300,000 | N/A | 3,403 |
2. The Running Man* | $17,000,000 | $17,000,000 | N/A | 3,534 |
3. Predator: Badlands | $13,000,000 | $66,304,860 | 1 | 3,725 |
4. Regretting You | $5,000,000 | $45,959,000 | 2 | 2,709 |
5. Black Phone 2 | $2,650,000 | $74,672,000 | 3 | 2,419 |
6. Keeper* | $2,500,000 | $2,500,000 | N/A | 1,950 |
7. Nuremberg | $2,435,000 | $8,491,000 | 5 | 1,830 |
8. Sarah’s Oil | $2,341,034 | $8,657,143 | 4 | 2,410 |
9. Bugonia | $1,600,000 | $15,678,000 | 6 | 1,253 |
10. Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc | $1,600,000 | $41,231,000 | 7 | 1,420 |
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t Is The New Number One Movie As Franchise Opening Weekend Numbers Slightly Diminish
To be totally fair, nobody expected Now You See Me: Now You Don’t to have a nine-figure weekend. The best start in the magic-centric franchise domestically was pulled off by the Louis Leterrier-directed first, which only managed to make $29.4 million before going on to make $342.8 million worldwide. That being said, it's never a good thing when a franchise is operating with diminishing returns, and that's what we are seeing play out here.
In 2016, Jon M. Chu's Now You See Me 2 made $22.4 million when it opened, and The Numbers is now reporting that the third title in the series has made $21.3 million in its debut. It's clearly not an overwhelming difference, but there also isn't suggestion that audiences were terrifically excited to see the return of the characters after a nine-year hiatus.
The so-so #1 start comes in the wake of the movie getting a very mixed response from critics who got to see it early... though that has been something that the franchise has had to contend with from the start.
It's really in overseas territories where these movies tend to shine, and early numbers suggest that Now You See Me: Now You Don't will keep that pattern going. Only a little more than a third of the original movie's ticket sales came from the United States and Canada, and that ratio only became more severe with the sequel (Now You See Me 2 made $328.3 million worldwide, but only $65.1 million of that was domestic money). Per Lionsgate, the new 2025 movie has already made $54.2 million in 64 foreign territories, bringing its worldwide total to date to $75.5 million.
With a reported budget of $90 million, the film needs to still make quite a bit more to ultimately be labeled a success, but circumstances could be worse...
The Running Man Fails To Meet Modest Expectations At The Box Office
Hollywood is always on the lookout for the next big stars who will automatically generate box office, and after the $200 million-plus success of Will Gluck's Anyone But You, the industry had high hopes for Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. Unfortunately, this fall has been treacherous for the actors. First, David Michôd's Christy failed to do any business last week (arriving in wide release but failing to crack the Top 10), and now The Running Man has found itself off to a rough start.
Despite the star power of Powell as the lead of the new Stephen King movie, the action/adventure film only managed to make $17 million in its first three days despite reported expectations/hopes that it would earn over $20 million. It's problematic principally because of the movie's cost, as Varity says that the production budget was $100 million (which doesn't include publicity and marketing costs).
It's a tough result particularly because The Running Man is a title that really could have used a strong opening weekend. In addition to the fact that there is plenty of notable competition on the way, the film only managed to earn modest buzz from critics (I personally gave it three-and-a-half stars in my CinemaBlend review... but I also really hate what it does with the ending). The mediocre "B+" grade delivered from CinemaScore surveys suggests that word of mouth isn't going to be rampant, and that could mean I'll be reporting on a significant sink in ticket sales this time next week.
Predator: Badlands Takes A Rough Fall After Its Exciting Start
What will the box office numbers for Now You See Me: Now You Don't and The Running Man look like next week? I hate to say it, but my sad prediction is that we can expect a fall akin to what has happened to Predator: Badlands. Last Sunday, the film generated some very positive headlines as it managed to have the best opening weekend in the history of the Predator franchise... but a $40 million start has been followed by a tough 68 percent drop.
Given the aforementioned new releases, it's not a shock that Predator: Badlands fell to third place after winning the box office crown in its debut, but there were definitely hopes that it would make more than the $13 million it earned domestically in the last three days. To date, it has made $66.3 million at home and $70 million overseas, equating to a $136.3 million gross. That's enough for it to rank as the second highest grossing title in the franchise, behind only Shane Black's The Predator from 2018 (which finished its theatrical run making $159.5 million) and Paul W.S. Anderson's Alien vs. Predator from 2004 ($172.5 million).
Looking ahead to next week, the box office is preparing for the arrival of a wrecking ball, as Wicked: For Good is playing in wide release starting Friday, and hopes are high that it will perform even better than its predecessor from 2024. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to check out the results, and head over to our 2025 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the big titles on the way between now and the end of the year.
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