Sony/Crunchyroll are on a roll with their anime releases in cinemas following the insane $70 million debut for “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” last month.
“Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” looks set to top the domestic box-office this weekend, the title pulling in $8 million on Friday and headed for an opening weekend haul of over $14 million.
That’s on the higher end of projections for the title, but the first night of the World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers playing could impact things as Los Angeles is the top market for anime films.
The film continues the hugely popular “Chainsaw Man” anime series and follows Denji, a yakuza enforcer betrayed and killed, who makes a deal to fuse with a chainsaw-powered devil-dog. He becomes the unstoppable Chainsaw Man in a brutal war between devils, hunters, and secret enemies. The film sees a mysterious girl named Reze stepping into this world.
Reviews for the Tatsuya Yoshihara-directed title are quite good with a 72/100 on Metacritic and 95% critics/99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Also at the box-office is a three way battle between returnee “Black Phone 2,” which looks to be dropping 60% in its second weekend, and newcomers “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” and “Regretting You” with all three on track to earn around $11-12 million each.
“Tron: Ares” will round out the top five with just over $4 million in its third weekend. NEON’s horror title “Shelby Oaks” is looking to take in $2.5 million its debut.
