‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ to Top Box Office Yet Again Over Desolate Labor Day Weekend

Rebecca Rubin

Due to the sheer lack of compelling options, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is expected to top the box office in its sixth weekend of release.

Several movies will open nationwide — the Dennis Quaid-led biopic “Reagan” and Sony and Blumhouse’s AI horror fable “Afraid” among them — but none are projected to make a dent on box office charts over the Labor Day holiday weekend. Those newcomers are aiming for low-single digits and will be lucky to crack the top five, which looks to be populated with holdovers such as “Alien: Romulus” and romantic drama “It Ends With Us.”

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In what’s shaping up to be one of the slowest weekends of the year, Disney’s Marvel sequel “Deadpool & Wolverine” looks to rule with $12 million to $13 million over the extended holiday frame. The R-rated film, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, has claimed the No. 1 spot for four out of the past five weekends. It’s the second highest-grossing movie of the year with $577 million in North America and $1.21 billion globally.

Among new releases, “Reagan” could lead with $5 million to $7 million over the four-day period. Sean McNamara (“Soul Surfer”) directed the $25 million movie, adapted from from Paul Kengor’s 2006 book “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.” Told through a conversation between former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight) and upstart Russian politician Andrei Novikov (Alexey Sparrow), the film charts the life and time of Ronald Reagan from his childhood through his years as president of the United States. ShowBiz Direct, an independent distributor, is releasing the film.

“Afraid” is targeting a similar start of $5 million to $7 million between Friday and Monday. The film, starring John Cho and Katherine Waterston, follows a family who is selected to test a revolutionary smart home AI. But the new device starts to develop self-awareness and becomes a bit too intertwined with their lives. Blumhouse tends to keep costs low, so “Afraid” carries a lean $12 million production budget.

Box office charts will, somehow, only get bleaker from there. Three films — Lionsgate’s R-rated crime thriller “1992,” starring Tyrese Gibson and Scott Eastwood, Bleecker Street’s sci-fi thriller “Slingshot,” and Roadside’s human trafficking drama “City of Dreams” — will each aim for $2.5 million or less between Friday and Monday’s holiday.

“1992” follows a shopkeeper who must save his son from an angry mob during the Los Angeles uprising after the Rodney King Verdict. “Slingshot” spotlights Casey Affleck as an astronaut struggles to maintain his grip on reality aboard a possibly fatally compromised mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan. “City of Dreams” follows a young Mexican farmer who travels to L.A. with the promise of training at a soccer camp, only to realize he’s been sold to a sweatshop.

In the case of “City of Dreams,” roughly 50% of projected ticket sales won’t be revenue in the traditional sense. In an unusual move, the filmmakers and John Devaney, founder of United Capital and Manor House Films, are giving away $1 million in free tickets. Their donations were given to “individuals and groups, including anti-trafficking organizations, survivors, schools, churches, municipalities, and people who may otherwise not be able to afford to watch the film,” according to a press release.

The film’s writer, director and producer Mohit Ramchandani said these complimentary screenings will help to spotlight “spotlight onto some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

“There are 12 million children who are victims of modern-day slavery today,” he said in a statement. “In our film, we tell the story of one of those children who had the courage to fight back.”

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