Box Office - 'Trap' Continues WBD's Very Bummer Summer, Plus What 'Longlegs' (Again) Proves About Serial Killer Movies

Honestly, a $15.6 million debut for a wholly original thriller starring Josh Hartnett would be a win for almost any director other than M. Night Shyamalan.

Trap opens on the low end of “okay, I guess” for a Shyamalan thriller.

Alas, the opening weekend for Trap was not a generational coronation for M. Night Shyamalan. The $15.6 million domestic debut is between A Knock at the Cabin ($14.1 million in early 2023) and Old ($16.8 million in July 2021). With mixed reviews, a C+ from CinemaScore and a 2.3x weekend multiplier, legs in sync with The Watchers ($19 million from a $7 million debut this past June), A Knock at the Cabin ($35 million in early 2023) and Old ($48 million in July 2021) would give Trap a domestic finish between $39 million and $45 million. The over/under $30 million thriller would still need big overseas bucks (it earned $4.4 million amid the first 38 territories with 29 more opening next weekend) to be profitable in theatrical alone.

Meanwhile, this month has a ton of genre material (Cuckoo, Alien: Romulus, The Crow, etc.). The PG-13 flick (a really soft PG-13 for the guy who made Split and Old) will stand out among its mainly (save for Borderlands) R-rated competition. It’s the closest thing to a “scary movie for kids” until Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. An original, star-free, high-concept thriller (the Josh Hartnett reclamation is mainly confined to the online film nerd bubble) with mixed reviews opening with $15.6 million in 2024 would be a relative triumph for almost any filmmaker other than Shyamalan. However, the notion that Trap would play both to the cool kids who showed up for Split and the Shyamalan lifers (who retroactively champion his mid-2000s critical whiffs. That didn’t quite happen.

As in 2019, WB needs a post-summer rescue from some scary clowns.

Not screening the film for critics before release was a mistake. Critics and professional journalists were not going to spoil the film’s second and third acts for sport; online nerds and engagement trolls do that. It created a perception that the pulpy, gee-whiz fun programmer was far worse than it was. It centered the pre-release conversation on the lack of press screenings. This continues a harsh summer for Warner Bros. Discovery. The summer of Shyamalan could be 0/2, Kevin Costner’s grand plans for Horizon Part 1 and Horizon Part 2 didn’t work out and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was the season’s most high-profile tentpole disaster. Hell, even Twisters is tanking overseas while Universal reaps the domestic riches ($196 million after a $22 million third weekend).

The Dream Factory dominated the back half of 2023, especially overseas (Barbie, The Meg, The Nun II, Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) and the pre-summer season (Dune Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) of 2024. To be fair, Twisters tanked outside of North America partially because, like Solo, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, Lightyear and The Little Mermaid, it was a hard IP play for a property with little overseas nostalgia with a film lacking elements (Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones are not “names” in foreign markets) which might appeal to those not already interested in a Twister sequel. If they don’t kick box office ass with Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice in early September and then Joker: Folie a Deux in early October, then we can panic.

Sony’s Harold and the Purple Crayon is a sequel to Crocket Johnson’s original book. Zachary Levi plays the grown-up version of the book’s youthful protagonist. This was not the second coming of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland or Steven Spielberg’s Hook. The $40 million flick, directed by Blue Sky Animation vet Carlos Saldanha, opened $6 million domestically and $3 million overseas. I have yet to see it, but the poor reviews are not a shock but a disappointment. Peter Rabbit and Lyle Lyle Crocodile were much better than expected. If It Ends with Us opens anywhere near the optimistic projections, this will be a minor miss in what’s still a pretty solid summer (Garfield is at $250 million, and Bad Boys 4 is near $400 million) for Sony.

Twisters’ loss (overseas) is Despicable Me 4’s gain.

The overseas indifference to Twisters ($79 million thus far for a $274 million global total) somewhat benefits Universal’s own Despicable Me 4. The Illumination toon earned $11.2 million (-24%) on weekend five and a $314 million 33-day total. It picked up steam overseas with $38 million for a $438 million foreign cume (bigger than Dune Part Two and — thus far — Deadpool 3). With $752 million worldwide, it’s now #3 for the year. The upswing means it may end up close to $850 million. Domestically, it’ll pass Minions ($335 million in 2015), but the $370 million highs of Despicable Me 2 (in 2013) and Minions: The Rise of Gru (in 2022) could be out of reach. Credit a generational nostalgia stateside for the brand for keeping North American earnings consistent.

Disney’s Inside Out 2 earned $6.7 million (-22%) on weekend eight for a $627 million domestic total. Sans inflation, it just passed The Last Jedi ($620 million in 2017) and The Avengers ($623 million) in North America, with Barbie ($636 million in 2023) next in line. That will put it in 11th place domestically, although Jurassic World ($653 million in 2015) might be out of reach. The Pixar sequel earned $20.5 million overseas for a $928 million foreign total. With $1.555 billion worldwide, it has passed Furious 7 ($1.515 billion) and The Avengers ($1.52 billion) to crack the all-time top ten. Oh, and Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One has now earned $137 million domestically (passing Five Nights At Freddy’s) and $259 million worldwide on a $67 million budget.