NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box-office showdown, both husband and wife came out winners.
Reynolds鈥� Marvel Studios smash remained the top movie in North American theaters for the third straight week with $54.2 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday. Worldwide, it鈥檚 now surpassed $1 billion. 鈥淒eadpool & Wolverine,鈥� though, was closely followed by the romance drama starring Lively, which surpassed expectations with a stellar $50 million debut.
Together, the films created a kind of family edition of in which a pair of very different movies thrived in part due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the opposite movies were fronted by one of Hollywood鈥檚 most famous couples. The films鈥� one-two punch wasn鈥檛 entirely unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis鈥� 鈥淒ie Hard 2鈥� led the box office while Demi Moore鈥檚 鈥淕host鈥� came in second.
The weekend also featured a high-priced flop. the long-delayed $120-million videogame adaptation directed by Eli Roth, launched with a paltry $8.8 million for Lionsgate. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, was shot all the way back in 2021. After delays and reshoots, it finally landed in theaters effectively dead-on-arrival; it scored just 10% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and seems likely contend for one of the worst movies of the year.
Meanwhile, 鈥淒eadpool & Wolverine,鈥� which co-stars Hugh Jackman, continued its march through box-office records. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, is only the second R-rated movie to reach $1 billion, following In three weeks, it鈥檚 already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases and trails only Disney鈥檚 other 2024 smash, 鈥淚nside Out鈥� ($1.6 billion worldwide) among movies released this year.
Lively makes a cameo in 鈥淒eadpool & Wolverine鈥� but she both stars in and produced 鈥淚t Ends With Us.鈥� Adapted from the bestselling romance novel by Colleen Hoover, Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a Boston florist torn between two men, one from her present life (Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film) and another who was her first love (Brandon Sklenar).
鈥淚t Ends With Us鈥� cost a modest $25 million to produce, so it will turn a significant profit for co-financers Columbia Pictures and Wayfarer Studios. Like another female-skewing summer-release book adaptation from Sony, 鈥淲here the Crawdads Sing,鈥� 鈥淚t Ends With Us鈥� could hold well through the typically slower August box-office period. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.
Reynolds and Lively occasionally played up the convergence of their movies. Earlier this week, Reynolds posted a video of himself posing junket questions to Sklenar. The timing paid off especially for Lively, whose film doubled earlier opening-weekend forecasts.
狈别辞苍鈥檚 a German Alps-set horror film by filmmaker Tilman Singer, opened with $3 million on 1,503 screens. It stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. 鈥淒eadpool & Wolverine,鈥� $54.2 million.
2. 鈥淚t Ends With Us,鈥� $50 million.
3. 鈥淭wisters,鈥� $15 million.
4. 鈥淏辞谤诲别谤濒补苍诲蝉,鈥� $8.8 million.
5. 鈥淒espicable Me 4,鈥� $8 million.
6. 鈥淭rap,鈥� $6.7 million.
7. 鈥淚nside Out 2,鈥� $5 million.
8. 鈥淗arold and the Purple Crayon,鈥� $3.1 million.
9. 鈥淐耻肠办辞辞,鈥� $3 million.
10. 鈥淟onglegs,鈥� $2 million.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
