Japanese anime feature Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is off to an impressive start at the U.S. box office, where it’s on course to top Friday’s chart with $8 million to $9 million from 3,003 theaters for a better-than-expected opening of $14 million to $15 million, if not more. The acclaimed manga pic presently boasts a perfect 100 percent critics score and a 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a rarely seen combo, in addition to five out of five stars on exit polling service PostTrak.
Produced by MAPPA, the R-rated pic is based on the hit anime TV series that is available to stream on Disney+, Crunchyroll and other platforms. Since launching in cinemas last month in Japan, Chainsaw Man has already grossed north of $64 million at the global box office. Sony and Crunchyroll are handling the movie domestically and in select overseas markets.
Heading into its U.S. opening, Chainsaw Man was expected to battle Blumhouse and Universal’s holdover hit Black Phone 2 for No. 1 with a debut in the $11 million to $12 million range. But it quickly pulled ahead of the pack after earning $3.4 million in Thursday previews.
Conversely, the Black Phone sequel is in a relatively close race for No. 2 with new offerings Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover‘s novel Regretting You. Early Friday grosses suggest all three movies could gross anywhere from $9 million to $12 million.
It remains to be seen how much of an impact the first two games of this year’s World Series — which pits the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays — have on the weekend box office. Generally speaking, NFL games pose far more competition. At the same time, L.A. is the largest moviegoing market alongside New York City (it is also the biggest market for anime). Friday night’s opening game of the World Series, as well as Saturday’s, are both in Toronto.
Chainsaw Man — The Movie follows the adventures of Denji (Kikunosuke Toya), a teenager and demon hunter who is killed by his overlords, the yakuza. But when his beloved chainsaw-powered, devil-dog Pochita (Shiori Izawa) makes a deal and sacrifices himself, Benji is reborn with the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Along with violence, the pic doubles as a teenage romancer with the arrival of the mysterious Reza. However, Reza is not quite who she seems, and a series of battles ensue that could destroy Tokyo when their love story takes a twisted turn.
Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, the film is based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original story, with a screenplay by Hiroshi Seko. “It’s safe to say that manga and anime fans won’t be disappointed, even if they’ll inevitably be nitpicking about one narrative aspect or another,” writes THR in its review.
The Bruce Springsteen bio-drama Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere grossed $850,000 in Thursday previews, which isn’t a surprise for an older, adult-skewing film. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics score presently rests at 66 percent; the RT audience score is far stronger at 83 percent.
Springsteen, playing in a total of 3,460 cinemas, should see a boost from 250 IMAX runs and an additional 750 runs on a myriad of other premium large-format screens. The music-infused pic stars Jeremy Allen White in the titular role, and who is credited in THR‘s review for giving a “raw and internalized performance as The Boss.” Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young also star in director Scott Cooper’s examination of a brutal comedown after a blockbuster tour, which yielded the prolific musician’s most personal album.
Paramount didn’t hold regular Thursday previews for Constantin Film’s Regretting You, and instead hosted a special fan event at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City that was streamed live into 500 participating theaters nationwide. A screening of the pic was accompanied by a Q&A with director Josh Boone and cast members Allison Williams, Dave Franco and Mason Thames.
Regretting You, playing in 3,593 locations, is the second Colleen Hoover book adaptation to hit the big screen after 2024’s box office blockbuster It Ends With Us, which is also at the center of an ongoing legal battle between director/producer Justin Baldoni and actress/producer Blake Lively.
The new film is described as a romantic drama that speaks to the aspirational theme of living life fully and with no regrets. There’s been a notable lack of product for women at the multiplex, which could help Regretting You. However, it will need solid audience scores to make up for generally withering reviews. Constantin Films produced and financed the movie, with Paramount acquiring domestic and certain overseas rights. Internationally, the film opens this week in 40 markets, including the U.K., Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
At the specialty box office, Neon launches Shelby Oaks in 1,823 locations. Marking YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann‘s debut feature, the found-footage pic is eyeing an opening in the $2 million to $2.5 million range. So far, it’s main claim to fame is that it raised $1.4 million via a Kickstarter campaign, the highest amount ever for a horror title, per the crowd-sourcing platform. Neon later provided some additional funds.
