Box Office Report: Always-ALWAYS-Always Bet On Anime
I said it last week. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Always bet on anime! Easy Allies taught me that lesson, and it’s 100% true. Look no further than this weekend’s box office, which saw the #1 spot go to Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc. What is that? I have no friggin’ clue. But the people who know this scene, the Comic Con crowd, the people who are really plugged into what’s hip on the internet, they know, and they came out to support the film to the tune of $17.25 million in its opening weekend. Now, that’s pennies compared to the opening of the most recent Demon Slayer movie and its $70 million opening, but on a pre-Halloween weekend curiously lacking in new horror movies to take advantage of the spooky season, it’s a strong opening. Worldwide, the film has already cracked $100 million, with its global total sitting at $108 million.
In second place, we have Black Phone 2 with $13 million, bringing its total to a respectable $49 million, which puts it ahead of the original film’s 10-day total of $47.4 million. Will it have the legs to pass the original’s final tally of $90.1 million? We’ll have to wait and see.
Third place goes to Regretting You, which earned $12.85 million. As soapy dramas go, it’s not in the same league as It Ends With Us, which opened to $50 million last year. It’s also below Where The Crawdads Sing from 2022, but as Deadline’s analysis pointed out, that movie benefitted from a July release date. We’ll have to wait and see if audiences stick around in coming weeks or if it will sink like a stone.
The Boss had to settle for fourth place, with Springsteen: Deliver Us From Nowhere opening on the low end of expectations with just $9.1 million. That’s below last year’s Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, which opened to $11.6 million on its way to a decent $75 million. I suppose there’s a chance Deliver Us could deliver something in that ballpark, but I personally doubt it. I’m a huge Springsteen fan myself, but the film’s focus on the Nebraska era isn’t exactly a full-on four quadrant story, you know? This was never gonna be Bohemian Rhapsody, which is great for the film itself, but less great for its box office potential. Call me old fashioned, but I’d rather have a good movie than a successful one. Maybe that’s why I’m not an accountant.
Elsewhere in the top 10, Tron: Ares is still limping along, earning $4.9 million and bringing its total to a paltry $63.3 million. Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune failed to hold on in its second weekend, dropping nearly 50% to 3.1 million for a 10-day total of $11.8 million. The last new wide release of the week, Shelby Oaks, brought in $2.35 million. I suppose there’s a chance this one could perform well over the week and especially on Halloween, but I think it’s got a much better chance of becoming a cult classic on streaming in the coming years.
Next week sees Halloween fall on Friday, which is always a tricky prospect for the weekend. The frame will see the wide debut of Bugonia, which has already earned $690k in its first weekend of limited release in 17 theaters. They’re also re-releasing the entire Twilight saga over the course of the week, which could add up to some decent business. Twilight was the anime of its era, so if the rule is “always bet on anime,” then it must also mean, “always bet on Twilight,” right?
Related: Last Week’s Box Office Recap
