Continuing our trend for quiet weekends at the box office doesn’t take away the fact that another demographic-specific title leads the headway once again and is a subtle reminder that this is where studios rely on the lesser-known titles to try to pull out the stops when the lack of a major studio release or tentpole is not in the foreground to do so.
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc took in $17.25 million in its debut, leading the box office. Less mainstream and a bit more gratuitously violent than Demon Slayer, this opened “just” under the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (which opened with $19 million in March 2022). It’s already topped $100 million globally thanks to a nice bump from Japan and other international territories, so it will probably keep pouncing to reach somewhere in the vicinity of $175-200 million globally. I guess Sony and Crunchyroll can simply do the same thing again in two months, keeping anime afloat at the box office temporarily.
Black Phone 2 fell to second place with $13 million (52% drop) while adding 49 more theaters. That’s slightly better than its predecessor’s $12.2 million second weekend, and it is still on track to etch out a domestic lead over the past 10 days. That’s a great sign for horror and Scott Derrickson’s lead, and maybe the Grabber can become the new Freddy Krueger. Fun fact: this lead is better than Smile 2‘s second weekend performance last year ($9.5 million, with $40 million domestic total by then).
Regretting You opened with $12.85 million, which is pretty underwhelming even with a notable cast and a B from CinemaScore. The women didn’t kick butt this time, unlike Blake Lively’s hold with It Ends with Us, which opened with $50 million. Maybe Wicked For Good will seal the difference. This will probably leg out to $35 million domestically. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere opened with $9.1 million and mixed-to-positive reviews; it may “just” leg out to Elvis‘s $31 million.
Tron: Ares has not even passed $125 million worldwide and is already fleeing theaters, with $4.9 million in its third weekend. So yeah, this is another commercial bust and, checks notes, it will earn less than Leto’s Morbius film ($167 million in 2022). One Battle After Another will pass $180 million globally by the end of the day, but $200 million worldwide is already out of reach. Speaking of the former, Bob Iger sacrificed wit and ambition by putting all the eggs in the MCU while dismantling any chances of other breakouts on Disney’s front, and so a pre-Avengers IP was revived and showed its true colors once again: the Tron series was never that interesting or bankable. And for the umpteenth time, Jared Leto is not a draw; Sony getting bullied to put “it’s Morbin time” back into theaters by the pundits showcased a stark reality.
Good Fortune earned $3.1 million in its second weekend, while Roofman earned $2 million. NEON’s Shelby Oaks opened with $2.35 million. The Conjuring: Last Rites will crawl towards $490 million.
Next weekend sees the release of Anniversary, Violent Ends, Messy, Safe House, and The Wrecker.
