Senior Film and Media Reporter

After a blip that allowed another film to sell some tickets, “Deadpool & Wolverine” returned to the top of the box office charts in its fifth weekend of release. Marvel’s superhero adventure towered over the (albeit bloodless) competition when two newcomers, “The Crow” and “Blink Twice,” failed to debut.

Director Zoe Kravitz’s twisted thriller “Blink Twice” topped the new releases chart, but stalled in fourth place with $7.3 million from 3,067 theaters. Meanwhile, Lionsgate’s R-rated reboot of “The Crow,” starring Bill Skarsgård as a murdered musician brought back to life to avenge the deaths of himself and his fiancée, flopped with $4.6 million from 2,752 theaters, opening in eighth place. Critics were more favorable to “Blink Twice” than “The Crow” — the former holds a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, while the latter is saddled with a 20% “rotten” score — while audiences were mixed, giving both films a “B-” on CinemaScore. So it remains to be seen how word of mouth will affect the rest of their theatrical runs.

“The Crow,” a gritty retelling of the 1994 graphic novel that was adapted into a film, cost $50 million to produce. It’s Lionsgate’s second straight flop, following August’s “Borderlands,” which tumbled to the wasteland of No. 16 in its third weekend of release with $500,000 from 1,147 locations. The $115 million-budgeted video game adaptation starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Ariana Greenblatt is one of the year’s biggest flops, having earned $15 million in North America and $23 million worldwide. In the case of “The Crow,” Lionsgate won’t distribute the film until it has acquired the U.S. rights for about $10 million.