BOX OFFICE: “Chainsaw Man” anime owns the weekend, “Springsteen,” “Regretting You” and “Black Phone 2” chase second place
The shrunken state of moviegoing in North America has left the field wide open for films with dedicated fringe audiences to dominate many a box office weekend.
“Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc” is the latest Sony Crunchyroll import to take over theaters for a weekend or three. It did a decent Thursday night and solid Friday ($8 million so far) to set itself up as this weekend’s “Demon Slayer,” a $14 million take (according to Deadline.com’s projections) that in the absence of anything from Hollywood to tear people away from the World Series or anything else on TV, is enough for a win.
The two big Hollywood releases are the would-be awards bait bio-pic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” and the Colleen Hoover (“It Ends with Us”) romantic weeper “Regretting You.” They’re collecting enough ticket sales to challenge “Black Phone 2” for the #2 spot with all three looking at $11-$12 million weekends.
The only people who review these anime action/fantasy franchises are generally fans or panderers to the fans, so it’s hard to say “Chainsaw Man” will be boosted by critical acclaim. It’s hard for most of the reviewing fraternity/sorority to work up much enthusiasm for this corner of anime. The animation is unexceptional, the stories and characters are lack much beyond video game characters in terms of depth.
At least this will push “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle” out of the top ten, but not before that big fall hit finishes collecting $135 million.
“Regretting You” is earning poor reviews as Hoover’s high-toned romance novel has no Blake Lively to recommend it, just nepo babies Allison Williams and Scott Eastwood, along with Dave Franco and McKenna Grace.
“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” has all sorts of things going for it — rock history, one of the most popular acts of the ’70s-90 — and a brooding, downbeat subject (Bruce’s depression and the reasons for it) and is built around his most indulgent, least pop-rock friend LP “Nebraska” and its creation works against it. A mopey lead performance by Jeremy Allen White and a general joylessness characterized it for me. Others weren’t as kind.
Springsteen may be an icon, but he and his audience have aged out of the moviegoing habit so anything much over $10 million at the box office would have been a shock. You either worship him or wonder why your parents or grandparents still do.
The non-franchise horror title “Shelby Oaks” may be from Neon, a reliably challenging/entertaining distributor but will not clear the $3 million mark and only see the backside of the top ten.
The four new titles should shove “After the Hunt,” “Conjuring: The Last Rights” and “Soul on Fire” out of the top ten, with perhaps “Truth & Treason” or “Gabby’s Dollhouse” clinging to it for another week.
As more data comes in Sat. and Sunday I will update this to see how the rest of the top ten shakes out, and who actually comes in second, third and fourth.
