For the second time in seven weekends, a Sony/Crunchyroll anime release is topping the box office charts as “Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc” has edged out “Black Phone 2” and several other new releases to top the charts with $8.5 million grossed on Friday and an estimated $15.5 million opening weekend from 3,003 locations.
The R-rated anime action film has left its fans buzzing with excitement, earning the sort of scores usually reserved for faith-based films including an A on CinemaScore, 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5/5 on PostTrak.
While that’s not likely to lead to long legs given its status as a franchise anime film, “Chainsaw Man” is another example of how Sony and Crunchyroll have successfully developed their anime theatrical distribution strategy, attracting fans of various franchises to theaters for a communal experience.
This opening weekend ranks among the top 10 for anime films and is the third highest for an R-rated anime film behind only last month’s all-time record $70.6 million start for “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” and the $21.2 million opening of “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” in spring 2021.
In second is Paramount/Constantin’s “Regretting You,” the latest adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel to hit theaters, with an estimated $13 million opening weekend including $5.2 million on Friday. That edges the $12 million second weekend for Universal/Blumhouse’s “Black Phone 2,” which is humming along with a $48 million 10-day domestic total.
It’s a decent start for the $30 million Constantin production, but reception is not as strong as last year’s breakout Hoover film “It Ends With Us,” which opened to $24 million. “Regretting You” has received a B on CinemaScore to go with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 30% critics and 90% audience.
The other major wide release of the weekend is Disney/20th Century’s “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” which is on pace for a lackluster $9 million opening from 3,460 locations. The introspective biopic about the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album “Nebraska” earned a B+ on CinemaScore, the highest ever for director Scott Cooper but the same as the underperforming Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black.”
Given that the core audience for “Deliver Me From Nowhere” is in a similar age demographic as the 76-year-old Springsteen, it would be expected that even with rave reviews — it has a 61% critics and 88% audience RT score — the film would need time to draw out older moviegoers. As it is, the biopic faces an uphill battle to turn a theatrical profit against its reported $55 million budget.
More to come…
