Yahoo Movies It Ends With Us set a new record for Blake Lively at the box office
Even though it was released in July, no other movie could come close to Deadpool & Wolverine in August as it became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
There were still some successes to be found among the new August film releases, even if not at that scale.
For better and worse, It Ends With Us was one of the most-talked about new movie releases, while Alien: Romulus brought back the classic franchise in style.
In our regular monthly column, Digital Spy takes a look at the past month's biggest releases, as well as providing an update on the highest-grossing movies of the year so far.
Did any August film releases make it in? You'll have to read on to find out.
It Ends With Us box office
US: $135,818,800
International: $150,000,000
Worldwide: $285,818,000
Following a better-than-expected $50 million debut in the US, It Ends With Us has gone on to become Blake Lively's highest-grossing movie (not counting her role as Lady Deadpool in Deadpool & Wolverine).
It's a terrific result for the adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling book which has been somewhat overlooked as a result of the online speculation of a feud between Lively and her co-star/director Justin Baldoni.
The movie is also showing impressive legs at the box office instead of being a front-loaded fast burner. In its fourth weekend of release at the US box office, it's set to drop only 36% and will soon break into the top ten highest-grossing movies of the year domestically.
Alien: Romulus box office
US: $90,951,631
International: $194,700,000
Worldwide: $285,651,631
Alien: Romulus might not catch Prometheus ($403.4 million) as the franchise's highest-grossing movie, but it can take comfort in scaring up the second-biggest result of the series to date with more than $285 million so far.
What's particularly notable about the performance of the new Alien movie is that its biggest result at the time of writing isn't at the US box office. In China, the film has so far made $93.1 million, nudging ahead of its domestic total of $91 million to date.
In a year when Hollywood movies have struggled at the Chinese box office (with the exception of Godzilla x Kong's $134 million), it's an especially impressive result which is projected to rise to $114 million by the end of its run (via Variety).
Is the overall performance enough to secure another outing for the Xenomorphs? Quite possibly. Even if it isn't, Disney's decision to pivot from a streaming to a theatrical release has paid dividends.
Trap box office
US: $40,075,703
International: $33,200,000
Worldwide: $73,275,703
We're not proclaiming Trap to be a major box-office success as it ranks among M Night Shyamalan's lowest performers to date, although ahead of Knock at the Cabin ($54.7 million) and Lady in the Water ($72.8 million).
However, in a month when we've had notable flops in the form of Borderlands, The Crow and Harold and the Purple Crayon (all of which have been outgrossed by the 15th anniversary re-release of Coraline), it could have been worse.
But it's more reflective of August movie releases on the whole that Trap ranks as the third-biggest new release of the month.
Biggest movies of 2024 so far
Deadpool & Wolverine might now be the biggest R-rated movie ever, but it still won't be able to top Inside Out 2 as the highest-grossing movie of 2024 to date.
None of the new August releases have managed to crack the top ten, but Chinese comedy-drama Successor has now broken into the highest-grossing movies of the year following its release in July.
(The totals below are accurate as of September 2, 2024, and from The Numbers and Box Office Mojo.)
1. Inside Out 2 – $1,667,354,541
2. Deadpool & Wolverine – $1,262,208,117
3. Despicable Me 4 – $915,307,490
4. Dune: Part Two – $711,844,358
5. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – $568,721,707
6. Kung Fu Panda 4 – $548,326,927
7. YOLO – $479,597,304
8. Pegasus 2 – $466,930,272
9. Successor – $451,497,525
10. Bad Boys: Ride or Die – $402,529,640
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