One of the horror movies I’ve been most curious about is M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap. Ever since I caught footage of it at CinemaCon, I’ve been hooked by the compelling premise, in which Josh Hartnett plays a suburban dad attending a Taylor Swift-style concert doubling as an elaborate trap for an elusive serial killer. The twist is that HE is that serial killer. It promises to be a killer (pun intended) role for Hartnett, although the fact that WB’s not screening it for critics is giving me pause (a bit). Normally a movie like this would have no trouble topping the box office were it released on a quiet winter weekend, but it’s being used as counter-programming against Deadpool & Wolverine’s second weekend.
Following its record-breaking $205 million opening, the Marvel juggernaut seems primed to earn about $90-100 million this weekend. Given the A CinemaScore, I think $100 million (or maybe even a shade more) isn’t out of the question. However, the number two spot will be a big battle between Trap and Twisters. Word of mouth will either make or break Trap. On the high end, it could make $20 million and take second place, or it could fall off over the course of the weekend (if word of mouth is bad) and give Twisters, which looks to make around $18 million, a second place win. As it’s not screening for critics, I think there’s something about Trap the studio isn’t revealing that might throw a monkey wrench into its premise, so here are my predictions:
How do you think Deadpool & Wolverine will hold up this weekend? Let us know in the comments.