Lionsgate’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t has worked its magic at the global weekend box office, snagging an impressive US$75.5 million haul and outpacing the other big-budget film of the week, Paramount’s The Running Man.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the Ruben Fleischer-directed magic-based threequel was off to a great start leading up to the weekend with a respectable US$8.4 million garnered domestically on Friday. This would grow to US$21.3 million by the weekend’s end, alongside an additional US$54.2 million from global markets.
Meanwhile, Paramount‘s US$110-million-budget reboot The Running Man stumbled towards the finish line with a measly global earning of US$28.2 million despite its backing star power from rising Hollywood icon Glen Powell, fresh off blockbusters like 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick and 2024’s Twisters.
As the third instalment in Lionsgate’s magic-based heist franchise, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (also marketed as Now You See Me 3) sees the original Four Horsemen, a team of illusionists made up of J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), teaming up with a new generation of magicians to take on a criminal organisation led by diamond heiress Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike).
The Running Man, on the other hand, marks the second adaptation of the 1982 Stephen King novel of the same name, following the 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Directed and co-produced by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), the reboot follows Powell’s Ben Richards as he takes part in the titular The Running Man game show to save his sick daughter, where he needs to survive for 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, all while their every move is broadcast to the public.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
