UPDATE: 2025-07-29 08:18 EST BY BRENNAN KLEIN

The Crow Debuts At Lower End Of Projections, Opening At No. 8

This article was originally written Saturday AM and has been updated Sunday AM with altered box office projections (in bold), a full chart, and further analysis.

Summary

The Crowis so far not living up to its potential, struggling to match its initial expectations while a holdover hit reclaims the top spot during its opening weekend. The new movie is adapted from the James O’Barr comic book series of the same name and follows Eric (Bill Skarsgãrd) coming back from the dead to seek revenge for the murders of himself and his girlfriend Shelly (FKA Twigs).TheCrow’s weekend releasewas preceded by the movie earning a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, which stands at 21% at the time of writing.

PerDeadline, as of Sunday morning, domestic box office projections show that the new releases for the weekend will fail to compete with Disney’s two reigning champions. Marvel’sDeadpool & Wolverineis set to climb back to No. 1 with a three-day total of$18.3 millionfor its fourth non-consecutive weekend at the top of the chart, knocking 20th Century Studios’Alien: Romulusdown to No. 2 in its second weekend with$16.2 million. Meanwhile,The Crowis so far falling short of its initial $6-9 million projectionswith an estimated debut haul of$4.6 million.

The Crow Didn’t Land In The Domestic Top 5

Two Other New Releases Took Its Place

Despite being one of the buzziest new releases of the weekend,The Crowfailed to land on the Top 5 chart at all, swooping down to No. 8 at the domestic box office with its debut gross. Thus, the only movement in the Top 3 is theDeadpool & Wolverinereleasereclaiming the throne, as the No. 3 title that was behind it andAlien: Romulusthe previous weekend, the Blake Lively romantic dramaIt Ends with Us, continues to rake in the cash and hold its position despite ample behind-the-scenes controversy. See the full domestic Top 5 chart below:

1

$18.3 million

$577.2 million (weekend 5)

2

$16.2 million

$72.5 million (weekend 2)

3

$11.85 million

$120.8 million (weekend 3)

4

$7.3 million

$7.3 million (weekend 1)

5

$6.6 million

$6.6 million (weekend 1)

While the Top 3 is packed with the usual suspects for August,the remainder of the chart is filled out with non-Crownew releases. TheBlink Twicereleaseled the charge, with the Channing Tatum-led thriller taking in $7.3 million while the faith-based dramaThe Forge, a spinoff from 2015’sWar Room, took No. 5 with $6.6 million. These are modest results, but neither movie boasts a particularly huge budget. The former, the directorial debut ofThe Batmanstar Zoë Kravitz, only cost $20 million, while the latter only cost $5 million and thus has already made its budget back.

The movies displaced by those new releases wereTwisters, which was knocked from No. 4 to No. 6 with a solid $5.85 million in its sixth weekend, and theCoraline15th anniversary re-release, which fell from No. 5 to No. 7 with $5.1 million.Coralineis continuing to perform exceptionally well for a re-release, especially for a relatively recent movie that did not necessarily light the box office on fire during its original run.

Coralineoriginally grossed $124.6 million against a $60 million budget, and likely only earned a modest profit.

How The Crow’s Opening Weekend Compares To The Rest Of The Franchise

The Gothic Action Franchise Is Seeing Diminishing Returns

Before the Skarsgård reimagining came to theaters, there were four otherCrowmovies, though only the original 1994 adaptation (starring Brandon Lee) and its 1996 standalone sequelCity of Angels(starring Vincent Pérez) were released in theaters. The next two installments, which were 2000’sSalvation(starring Eric Mabius) and 2005’sWicked Prayer(starring Edward Furlong), both received limited theatrical runs before premiering direct-to-video. Below,see how the 2024 installment’s opening weekend compares to the previous theatrical moviesfrom the franchise:

$11.8 million

$50.7 million

$9.8 million

$17.9 million

$4.6 million

TBD

Even without adjusting for inflation, thecontroversial 2024The Crowmoviehas turned outthe lowest opening weekend yet of any theatrical installment in the franchise. However, it remains to be seen if it legs out to a proportionally greater total than the previous installment. At the time of writing, the movie has a Fresh 65% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which could indicate a potential word-of-mouth turnaround, especially considering the lack of major new tentpole blockbuster releases coming during the movie’s second weekend in theaters.

August 30th sees the debut of a cavalcade of smaller releases, namely the political biopicReagan, the Casey Affleck sci-fi movieSlingshot, the techno-horror thrillerAfrAId, and the sports dramaYou Gotta Believe.

Ultimately, it remains to be seen how the future ofThe Crowshapes up. The movie is not necessarily a financial failure, but the fact that it is debuting significantly belowCity of Angelscould indicate that there will be no further movies in the universeof this particular installment. While the underperformance of the 1996 movie did not prevent two further movies from being made in the original franchise, it did prevent them from being put out in wide release, relegating them to their direct-to-video releases.

The Crow

Cast

The Crow (2024) is a dark and gritty reimagining of the original graphic novel. It follows Eric, who is resurrected from the dead to avenge his and his soulmate’s brutal murders. Armed with supernatural abilities, Eric seeks justice against the killers responsible, navigating through a corrupt city that is as much a character as he is. This adaptation introduces new elements to captivate the modern audience!