M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” lands in theaters on Friday, but the twisted thriller won’t stand a chance on box office charts against the reigning champion, Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
“Trap” is targeting $15 million to $20 million in its opening weekend and will compete for second place with Universal’s disaster epic “Twisters.” The Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones-led film is estimated to add $17 million to 19 million in its third frame. So far, “Twisters” has grossed $154 million domestically and $220 million globally. This weekend’s other new release, Sony’s kid-friendly “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” is aiming for a bleak $6 million to $7 million to start.
Despite two newcomers, “Deadpool & Wolverine” will continue to rule the box office in its second weekend of release. Ticket sales could decline anywhere from 55% to 65% from its stellar $211 million debut, which would result in roughly $75 million to $95 million in its sophomore outing. After less than one week on the big screen, the superhero sequel is already one of the biggest movies of the year with $235.8 million domestically and $496 million globally. Soon, “Deadpool & Wolverine” will overtake “Despicable Me 4” ($679 million) and “Dune: Part Two” ($711 million) to stand as the second-biggest film of 2024. Disney’s “Inside Out 2” with $1.5 billion worldwide currently ranks as the year’s top film.
“Trap” stars Josh Hartnett as a serial killer who takes his teenage daughter to a pop concert, only to realize the event is a ploy by the police to catch him. Shyamalan’s latest film was 2023’s “Knock at the Cabin,” which opened to $14 million and ended its theatrical run with $54.7 million worldwide. Unless “Trap” arrives on the higher end of expectations, “Trap” will rank among the lower starts of the filmmaker’s career. However, the director of “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” takes the unusual step of self-financing his movies while keeping budgets low, so they don’t require a ton of coinage to turn a profit. Warner Bros. is distributing “Trap.”
“Trap” will test the strength of horror in a year that’s been so-so for the genre. Neon’s low-budget “Longlegs” became a breakout hit with $58.6 million in North America and counting. But otherwise, recent scary offerings like “The First Omen” ($53 million globally), Blumhouse’s haunted “Night Swim” ($54 million globally), the vampire-inspired “Abigail” ($42 million globally) and Lionsgate’s sinister “Imaginary” ($39 million globally) failed to strike a nerve with moviegoers.
“Harold and the Purple Crayon,” adapted from the children’s book of the same name, features Zachary Levi as a man who uses a magical marker to bring his drawings to life. The live-action/animated hybrid movie will face steep competition from “Inside Out 2” and “Despicable Me 4,” which have been box office mainstays for several weeks. “Harold” cost $40 million to produce, so Sony needs the film to resonate with family audiences during the remainder of summer.
Even with the mega successes of “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the overall domestic box office remains down 17% compared to 2023, according to Comscore. Ideally, fall releases like “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Joker: Folie a Deux” will help to close the gap.
Source Agencies
