Chainsaw Man Reze Arc Movie Tops the U.S. Box Office
Chainsaw Man fans showed up in force this weekend. Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc, adapted from the Reze Arc of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga, pulled in an estimated 17.25 million dollars to claim the top spot at the North American box office across 3,003 theaters. That pushes its estimated worldwide total to 108 million dollars.
MAPPA/CHAINSAW MAN PROJECT ©Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA
The win is part of a remarkable run for anime on the big screen. This is the third weekend out of the last seven where an anime film has led the US box office, and the third time a number one film has been tied to a Shonen Jump manga. Before this year, the only anime film ever to top a US weekend was Pokémon: The First Movie, more than a quarter century ago.
Premium screens did a lot of the heavy lifting. Around 63 percent of the film’s US earnings came from formats like IMAX and 3D, and the AMC Empire in New York City alone brought in 72,000 dollars. The audience skewed young and male, with about 75 percent men and roughly half under the age of 25.
It is doing strong business abroad too. In Japan the film has sold 4.69 million tickets for 7.17 billion yen, around 46.9 million dollars, over 38 days. It also added 14.7 million dollars across 46 overseas Sony markets this past weekend, lifting that total to 60.4 million dollars.
On distribution, SPE holds the worldwide theatrical rights and opened the movie in the US and Canada on Friday, a few days ahead of its original October 29 date, with early Crunchyroll member screenings on Wednesday and RealD 3D showings available. It reaches the UK on October 29, after screening in more than 80 countries starting September 24. Back in Japan it opened on September 19 in 421 theaters, complete with midnight screenings and premium MX4D, 4DX, and Dolby Cinema formats.
Distributor TOHO expects the film could eventually earn around 5 billion yen, about 34 million dollars, over its full run in Japan.
My take: It is genuinely heartening to watch anime films become regular box office champions. The Reze Arc clearly struck a chord, and numbers like these only mean more of these movies get the wide theatrical treatment they deserve.
