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In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box-office showdown, both husband and wife came out winners.<\/p>\n
Reynolds\u2019 Marvel Studios smash\u00a0\u201cDeadpool & Wolverine\u201d<\/a>\u00a0remained 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\u2019s now surpassed $1 billion. \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine,\u201d though, was closely followed by\u00a0\u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the romance drama starring Lively, which surpassed expectations with a stellar $50 million debut.<\/p>\n Together, the films created a kind of family edition of\u00a0\u201cBarbenheimer,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in 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\u2019s most famous couples. The films\u2019 one-two punch wasn\u2019t entirely unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis\u2019 \u201cDie Hard 2\u201d led the box office while Demi Moore\u2019s \u201cGhost\u201d came in second.<\/p>\n The weekend also featured a high-priced flop.\u00a0\u201cBorderlands,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the 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.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine,\u201d 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\u00a02019\u2019s \u201cJoker.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0In three weeks, it\u2019s already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases and trails only Disney\u2019s other 2024 smash, \u201cInside Out\u201d ($1.6 billion worldwide) among movies released this year.<\/p>\n Lively makes a cameo in \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine\u201d but she both stars in and produced \u201cIt Ends With Us.\u201d 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).<\/p>\n \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d 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, \u201cWhere the Crawdads Sing,\u201d \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d could hold well through the typically slower August box-office period. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Neon\u2019s\u00a0\u201cCuckoo,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a German Alps-set horror film by filmmaker Tilman Singer, opened with $3 million on 1,503 screens. It stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens.<\/p>\n Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.<\/p>\n 1. \u201cDeadpool & Wolverine,\u201d $54.2 million.<\/p>\n 2. \u201cIt Ends With Us,\u201d $50 million.<\/p>\n 3. \u201cTwisters,\u201d $15 million.<\/p>\n 4. \u201cBorderlands,\u201d $8.8 million.<\/p>\n 5. \u201cDespicable Me 4,\u201d $8 million.<\/p>\n 6. \u201cTrap,\u201d $6.7 million.<\/p>\n 7. \u201cInside Out 2,\u201d $5 million.<\/p>\n 8. \u201cHarold and the Purple Crayon,\u201d $3.1 million.<\/p>\n 9. \u201cCuckoo,\u201d $3 million.<\/p>\n 10. \u201cLonglegs,\u201d $2 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n