Lionsgate’s NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T finished at the top of the box office charts with $21.3M in its opening weekend. With help from Paramount’s THE RUNNING MAN, the two films pushed the total box office for all movies to $75.5M over the last three days.
NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T brought a little magic back to Lionsgate, as the first top finisher for the studio since FLIGHT RISK opened with $11.6M earlier this year from January 24-26. Also of note, THE RUNNING MAN is the second remake of an Arnold Schwarzenegger film in the last two weeks, after last weekend’s PREDATOR: BADLANDS.
Box office totals for the past two weekends have surpassed the matching frames from last year, with this weekend’s $75.5M higher than $70.0M for Weekend #46 from last year, and last weekend’s $81.0M compared to $68.9M for the same weekend last year when Amazon MGM’s RED ONE was the top-grossing film with $32.1M in its debut.
November’s box office is building nicely, as the disappointment of October is fading. In a rarity, next week’s opening of Universal’s WICKED: FOR GOOD will offer a mirror image of last year, when WICKED: PART I animated the weekend before Thanksgiving with a very strong $112.4M opening. Paramount’s GLADIATOR II also opened on that same weekend and brought in $55.0M. These two films together powered the total weekend box office to a boffo $202.4M.
The buzz surrounding WICKED: FOR GOOD is being fueled by a significant ad campaign from Universal, which has pushed advance ticket sales beyond those for last year’s first WICKED movie, and there are still five more days to go before PART II opens.
Even if WICKED: FOR GOOD outperforms WICKED, the total box office in the upcoming weekend is unlikely to match last year’s because there will not be a comparable title to GLADIATOR II this year. If WICKED: FOR GOOD fails to match last year’s $112.4M for WICKED, it will be difficult for the total 2025 domestic box office to reach the all-important $9B target that many have hoped for, a post-pandemic high.
FIRST PLACE
Lionsgate’s sleight of hand crime thriller NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T finished #1, earning $21.3M domestically and $75.5M worldwide. This is the third film in the NOW YOU SEE ME franchise that stars The Four Horsemen, an elite team of illusionists who use stage magic, misdirection, and heist stunts to expose corruption and redistribute wealth. They operate under the guidance of The Eye, a secret and mysterious society of magicians.
NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T reunites The Four Horsemen to carry out their most ambitious illusion yet. When a shadowy tech-criminal known as The Inquisitor steals a quantum-encryption key capable of erasing the world’s digital trail, The Four Horsemen come out of hiding to pursue a multi-country chase. Dylan Rhodes, now reinstated at the FBI, acts as their uneasy handler while the team navigates shifting loyalties and elaborate misdirection.
The movie is directed by Ruben Fleischer, whose previous films include the cult favorite ZOMBIELAND from 2009 and Marvel’s original VENOM from 2018. Its all-star cast includes Jessie Eisenberg as an intense, ambitious, perfectionist illusionist, Woody Harrelson as the mentalist and hypnotist, Dave Franco as a sleight-of-hand and escape artist, and Lizzy Caplan as a new member, an edgy magician and trick innovator.
Mark Ruffalo returns as the FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, and Morgan Freeman reprises his role as Thaddeus Bradley, a former magician himself and mentor to The Four Horsemen. The movie’s jet-set international feel was established by filming in seven foreign locations across eleven weeks, including stops in Italy, Morocco, the UAE, France, Macau, Iceland, and the UK.
Critics have never fully connected with this franchise, giving the first two films 51% and 34% scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were more positive, with grades of 70% and 53%. NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T has improved its standing, scoring a decent 59% from critics and better 81% from the public. Here are a few selections from critics’ comments.
The Los Angeles Times calls it “The most purely entertaining entry in the franchise,” praising the film’s “sleeker, more assured” storytelling. Ruben Fleischer gives the franchise “a sense of propulsion that doesn’t collapse under its own cleverness.” They say the Macau and Barcelona sequences are “the series’s most dazzling set pieces yet.” They criticize the villain as “underwritten,” but say the final fifteen minutes deliver “a bravura payoff.” Variety says it’s “A stylish upgrade that restores the magic.”
They highlight the film’s improved ensemble chemistry, especially Woody Harrelson and Lizzy Caplan, who “jumpstart the comedic rhythm missing in the second film.” They praise the cosmopolitan cinematography and note the twists are “more grounded and less cheat-coded than before.” Their only complaint is that there are “too many subplots chasing the mythology of The Eye.”
The Film Verdict hails the film as “Smartly engineered escapism,” praising the craftsmanship of the illusions, including “an ingenious rotating-room sequence that will be copied for years.” They admire that the film “lets the audience keep up without feeling stupid,” but wish the emotional stakes were “dialed a touch higher.” Still, they conclude, “It’s the kind of broad entertainment studios should be making.” Not everyone loved the film. RogerEbert.com weighed in with “A filmed record of stage magic doesn’t make a lot of sense, and a lot of the film still devolves into jumbled, giant bags of arbitrary plot twists, eager to outsmart viewers into nonsense.”
This is the most expensive film of the franchise, with an estimated production cost of $110M. Lionsgate is making a huge bet in its pursuit of a franchise that pays dividends into the future. To be profitable, this movie will need to make $275M globally, which could be a stretch. On the other hand, the two earlier NOW YOU SEE ME movies have done well overseas, where they have made 73% of the overall worldwide gross of $686.6M. Perhaps this encouraged Lionsgate to spend on international locations during the filming.
If NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T maintains the same 73% share from foreign sales, it could hit its profitability milestone after earning only $75M domestically. As a benchmark, the first NOW YOU SEE ME movie earned $117.7M domestically, and the second one earned $65.1M. Here are the details of how the first two movies compare to the third.
NOW YOU SEE ME Franchise Movies
SECOND PLACE
Paramount’s actioner remake THE RUNNING MAN ran to a second-place finish in its opening weekend with $17.0M domestically and $28.2M globally. The film is an updated version of the 1987 film of the same name starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both movies are based on the story in a 1982 Stephen King novel, written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
The new movie was directed by Edgar Wright, best known for his work on BABY DRIVER in 2017 and LAST NIGHT IN SOHO in 2021. He chose to stick close to the story as written in King’s original novel, while updating some of its themes for contemporary audiences. The novel explores the paradigm of Reality TV, a format of entertainment that did not yet exist in 1982.
Its plot revolves around a manhunt that is broadcast to the nation over a popular TV channel called The Games Network. Desperate contestants volunteer to be hunted to the death on live television for the chance to win a $10M prize if they can survive. This televised competition was conceived long before the arrival of Survivor or Big Brother. In an ironic twist, King places the story in his book in the then-distant future year of 2025. Is this an example of real-life imitating art?
This film stars Glen Powell (TOP GUN: MAVERICK from 2023) as Ben Richards, living in a dystopian America whose people are transfixed by a television spectacle called The Running Man. It dramatizes “Runners” who are released from captivity and forced to evade a team of trained “Hunters” for 30 days to win a life-changing prize.
Richards is a working-class father with a daughter who is gravely ill. Desperate to save her and exhausted by unemployment and blacklisting, he is urged by the ruthless producer Dan Killian, played by Josh Brolin, to sign on as a contestant in The Running Man show.
Once he is released, Ben crosses the country to avoid capture, outsmart his pursuers, and fight against a society fixated on his demise. As he eludes The Hunters, Richards challenges the show’s spectacle and becomes a fan-favorite. In the book, King directs Richard’s travels 4,000 miles to avoid being killed. In the movie, Wright used 168 different sets to create the effect of a sprawling manhunt.
Schwartzenegger’s 1987 movie met with a lukewarm response, with an opening weekend of $8.1M and a total domestic box office of $38.1M and was not distributed internationally. Its ratings on Rotten Tomatoes were 59% from critics and 61% from audiences. In 2025, the new movie is meeting with a somewhat similar fate, with an opening weekend of $17M and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes of 64% from critics and 80% from audiences.
Here are some examples of the reviews. Rolling Stone says, “Oh, it’s got action — plenty of action — and in-jokes, along with the sort of far-out formalism and warped sense of humor you’d expect from Edgar Wright.” The Hollywood Reporter says, “It’s somehow both fast-moving and lumbering, exciting and numbing. The reviewer was with it for a good while, but it wore them down.”
The Independent weighs in that “The material’s all there, yet there’s none of the urgency. What should, quite easily, feel like a mirror’s been smashed and its pieces methodically jammed between our ribs feels closer to a friendly knock on the shoulder.” Finally, Deadline says that THE RUNNING MAN is Edgar Wright’s impressively muscular reboot of Arnie’s ’80s sci-fi hit, going back to Stephen King’s original story.”
With the massive scope of the picture, the film production cost reached $110M, translating to a target of $275M in worldwide gross to get into the black. After an opening of $17.0M, it will need to hold up through the Thanksgiving period to have any chance of getting there. For a comparison film, we chose the original THE RUNNING MAN from 1987. 38 years ago, the earlier figures were adjusted significantly to account for inflation.
THE RUNNING MAN (2025) vs. THE RUNNING MAN (1987)
THIRD PLACE
Disney and 20th Century’s PREDATOR: BADLANDS fell from first place last weekend to third place this weekend by earning $13.0M, a steep drop of 68%. This brings the sci-fi sequel’s 10-day totals to $66.3M domestically and $136.3M worldwide, which is higher than grosses from the earlier PREDATOR films. The franchise’s future is hanging in the balance, with director Trachtenberg having said, “if BADLANDS is successful…” it will act as a trigger for the next one.
While commenting on the possibility of focusing on more ALIEN vs. PREDATOR crossovers in the future, Trachtenberg said that “the longer he can go without putting an Alien into the film, the better,” allowing the story to “grow slowly and organically” and giving audiences the chance to fall in love with each character on its own.
The director has explained that he has a goal to make three Predator films, having active discussions with Arnold Schwarzenegger to reprise his role as Dutch in some future installment. PREDATOR: BADLANDS needs to earn $263M worldwide to be profitable, and after ten days, it has taken in 52% of that amount. Also note that BADLANDS is by far the best reviewed movie of the bunch.
PREDATOR: BADLANDS vs. Highest-Grossing PREDATOR Films after 10 Days
FOURTH PLACE
Sony’s REGRETTING YOU finished next with $4.0M in its fourth weekend in theatres, a drop of 40%. This brings its 24-day totals to $45.0M in the U.S. and Canada and $82.5M globally. The film is now profitable, needing only $75M in worldwide sales to get there, and still appears to have some life left in its theatrical run. Colleen Hoover fans won’t have to wait long for the next film adaptation of one of her books, with Universal’s REMINDERS OF HIM scheduled to hit theatres on March 13, 2026.
REGRETTING YOU vs. IT ENDS WITH US after 24 Days
FIFTH PLACE
BLACK PHONE 2 from Sony absolutely refuses to hang up, adding $2.7M in its fifth weekend, a drop of 49%. This brings its 31-day totals to a very respectable and profitable $74.7M domestically and $127.7M globally. BLACK PHONE 2 has passed TRON: ARES to become the highest-grossing movie in the domestic market of the fourth quarter. This little horror sequel has done more than its share to carry exhibitors through a rough start to the quarter.
BLACK PHONE 2 vs. BLACK PHONE after 31 Days
Where Are We as of 11/13/2025
After 45 weeks, the 2025 domestic box office stands at 103% compared to the same point in 2024 and 73% compared to 2019.
