‘Running Man’ & ‘Now You See Me 3’ Have To Contend With ‘Predator: Badlands’ At Weekend Box Office

Paramount’s $110M redo of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man, this time starring Glen Powell, is targeting a No. 1 win at the box office this weekend, with around $20M. But it’s facing the heat carried by the second weekend of 20th Century Studio’s Predator: Badlands which looks to settle around $16M, -60%.

What could keep Predator: Badlands in a better-than-expected B.O. range is that it carries the best CinemaScore ever for the franchise (A-), as well as a high PostTrak definite recommend of 78%. Also, working to Badlands’ advantage is its PG-13 rating to Running Man‘s R rating. Badlands cleared $5.7M on Veterans Day Tuesday for a running five-day total of $49.2M.

Both are heavy male-skewing movies, though, Badlands’ second best demo last weekend was women over 25 at 22%. Of Running Man‘s 3,400 locations, 1,000 are premium large format screens. Previews start Thursday at 7 p.m.

Running Man, directed by Baby Driver‘s Edgar Wright, based on the 1982 novel written by Stephen King and published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, follows Powell as working class dad Ben Richards who is running a murderous race set in a near dystopian future. The goal? To win $1 billion to save his sick daughter. Over 30 days, contestants are hunted by assassins and must survive.

Looking to be a date movie is Lionsgate’s $90M+ threequel, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t about magicians who reteam for a diamond heist as they target dangerous criminals. The range is wild for Now You See Me 3, between high teens and low $20Ms, but tracking isn’t betting on a No. 1 win. Presales between Running Man and Now You See Me 3 are quite close. The second Now You See Me movie was in 2016 which had an opening of $22.3M for final domestic of $65M for a global take of $334.8M. While Lionsgate sells foreign, that’s where this franchise has rallied. But note, $97M of the last film’s global haul was made in China. Given how Hollywood movies have been largely soft in the Middle Kingdom post pandemic, don’t expect this threequel to fare as well. Previews start at 2PM on Thursday.

Neon’s third Oz Perkins genre title, Keeper, is the third wide entry at 1,950 theaters with an eye at low single digits. Billed as a throwback to 1970s horror films like Rosemary’s Baby, Keeper follows a couple during a romantic anniversary trip to a secluded cabin which turns sinister when a dark presence reveals itself. They’re forced to confront the property’s haunted past. Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland star. While Perkins’ previous two movies, Longlegs (NEON’s record opener at $22.4M) and The Monkey ($14M) opened higher, the P&A spend here is well under Longlegs’ (less than $10M). That’s in accordance with the production cost of the movie, which was $6M, we hear, as well as its $4M global pick-up price tag by NEON. First choice is best with women under 25 on tracking.

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