Box Office: ‘Now You See Me 3’ Conjures $8.4 Million Opening Day, While ‘The Running Man’ Starts Softer in Second Place

Lionsgate’s magic-trick franchise pulls off another solid debut, but Paramount’s pricey ‘Running Man’ reboot opens below expectations in a crowded November marketplace.

The box office got a little sleight of hand this weekend, as Lionsgate’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t re-emerged after nearly a decade and immediately claimed the top spot. The third installment posted $8.4 million on Friday, including Thursday previews, across 3,403 theaters — a start that lines up almost exactly with the franchise’s earlier entries and positions the film for a $21–$24 million opening frame.

For a series known more for overseas muscle than domestic staying power, this is a respectable return to form. The film arrives with a modestly warmer critical reception than the previous two, while audiences handed it a B+ CinemaScore, just a notch lower than the “A-” grades of the first two movies. Ruben Fleischer steps in to direct, with Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco reprising their roles as the Four Horsemen. Lionsgate invested more than $90 million to revive the brand, but again sold off key international rights — a strategy that lowers risk but also caps the potential upside should the film catch fire abroad.

The real competition, however, comes from another reboot of an ’80s property once defined by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Paramount’s The Running Man, led by Glen Powell and directed by Edgar Wright, landed with $6.4 million from Friday and previews across 3,534 theaters. That puts it on track for a $17–$19 million opening, falling short of the studio’s hopes for a debut above $20 million.

For a film with a $110 million budget and a built-in Stephen King legacy, the softer-than-expected launch is hard to ignore — especially heading into a November that grows more competitive by the day. With Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 set to dominate the family and four-quadrant audience, “Running Man” needed a louder, more electric opening to secure legs through Thanksgiving. Reviews have been mixed, while audiences again leaned more optimistic with a B+ CinemaScore, suggesting word-of-mouth may stabilize the film if competition doesn’t crush it.

Meanwhile, the weekend’s other wide release — Neon’s Keeper, the latest horror entry from Osgood Perkins — opened with a muted $1 million from 1,950 theaters. That performance puts it squarely on track for a fifth-place finish, far below the breakout numbers of Perkins’ past two films. Longlegs stunned last summer with a $22 million opening, while The Monkey bowed to $14 million earlier this year. “Keeper” arrives with significantly weaker reviews and a brutal D+ CinemaScore, which will likely stall its run almost immediately.

POPULAR ON THE CINEMA GROUP

In the holdover race, Disney’s Predator: Badlands fell sharply in its second Friday, down 68% to $3.5 million. The sci-fi sequel — another attempt to resurrect a dormant franchise — now sits at $56 million domestic, and is pacing toward a weekend total above $66 million. It remains on course to overtake Alien vs. Predator ($80.2 million domestic) as the highest-grossing entry in the shared Predator and Alien universe.

Rounding out the top five, Paramount’s Regretting You, the Colleen Hoover adaptation that has proven surprisingly durable, earned $1.2 million on Friday. The studio is projecting a gentle 39% dip for a fourth-weekend total of around $4 million, pushing the film to $45 million domestic by Sunday. Strong holds like this are becoming rare in the current market, and the film’s performance continues to exceed early expectations.

With mid-November underway, the box office is heading into one of the densest slates of the year. For Lionsgate, the return of the Four Horsemen is already a win. For Paramount, the question now is whether The Running Man can carve out space long enough to survive the oncoming holiday wave — or whether its hefty budget will weigh down what should have been one of the season’s surest bets.