Box Office Upset: ‘Chainsaw Man’ Wins With $18M; ‘Regretting You’ Overtakes ‘Black Phone 2’ After All

Box Office Upset: ‘Chainsaw Man’ Wins With $18M; ‘Regretting You’ Overtakes ‘Black Phone 2’ After All

Japanese anime feature Chainsaw Man – the Movie: Reze Arc is off to an impressive start at the U.S. box office, where it opened to an estimated $17 million-$18 million from 3,003 theaters, well ahead of expectations in another win for the genre. The acclaimed manga pic boasts a 96 percent critics score and a 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — a rare combo, along with an A CinemaScore and five out of five stars on PostTrak.

On Sunday, the film’s estimated opening was $17.3 million, but that number is expected to climb to $18 million or more when Sony reports final weekend grosses.

Overseas, Chainsaw Man earned another $18.8 million at the international box office from 54 markets for a foreign tally of $90.7 million and north of $108 million globally, a feat few anime pics have achieved. Sony and Crunchyroll are handling the movie domestically and in select markets overseas — excluding Japan, where the film first opened last month — and account for $60.4 million of the total haul. Produced by the team at MAPPA, the R-rated pic is based on the hit manga-turned-anime TV series that is available to stream in the U.S. on Disney+, Crunchyroll and other platforms.

Chainsaw Man 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, he is reborn with the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Along with violence, the pic doubles as a teenage romance with the arrival of the mysterious Reze. However, Reze is not quite who she seems, and a series of battles ensues 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.

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 thanks to males, who made up 75 percent of all ticket buyers, and younger moviegoers. More than 50 percent of ticket buyers were under the age of 25. It’s also drawing an ethnically diverse audience, including over-indexing among Asian moviegoers (20 percent), according to PostTrak.

In a second surprise twist, Regretting You — the second Colleen Hoover book adaptation to hit the big screen after 2024’s box office blockbuster It Ends With Us — pulled ahead of holdover hit Black Phone 2 to come in second domestically with $13.7 million, according to weekend actuals. Sunday estimates had Regretting You in third place.

Many expected Regretting You to be dinged by generally withering reviews, but the female-fueled pic garnered strong exits on PostTrak and boasts an audience score of 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (its CinemaScore, however, was only a B). It’s also clearly benefiting from being one of the few films to target women amid a glut of male-sewing fare, and is also a testament to Hoover’s continued popularity. (She’s stayed mum on the topic of the ongoing legal battle between It Ends With Us director/producer Justin Baldoni and actress/producer Blake Lively.) Females made up at least 80 percent of the audience, while nearly 75 percent of all ticket buyers were under the age of 35.

Internationally, the film opened this week in 40 markets, including the U.K., Australia, Brazil and Mexico, for an early foreign total of $10 million and north of $23 million globally.

The new film is described as a romantic drama that explores the aspirational theme of living life fully and without regrets. Constantin Films produced and financed the movie, with Paramount acquiring domestic and certain overseas rights.

Black Phone 2 is still a major coup. The pic, a needed win for Blumhouse, fell a scant 53 percent in its sophomore outing to $12.9 million for a domestic total of $48.9 million. Overseas, the sequel came in second with $10.9 million from 74 markets for a foreign tally of $31.8 million and stellar $80.7 million globally. The Blumhouse and Universal release is holding remarkably well for a horror title, and should continue to take advantage of being the only major studio horror film opening nationwide over the Halloween corridor this year.

Disney’s Bruce Springsteen biographical drama and awards hopeful Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere had to settle for fourth place in its debut after coming in behind expectations with roughly $9 million domestically and $7 million internationally from 28 markets for a global start of $16.1 million (it has yet to roll out in a number of major markets). The movie — which had been tracking to open in the $10 million to $12 million range domestically and $20 million globally — is skewing notably older, which is no surprise, and Disney is hopeful the pic will have staying power because of its subject matter, originality and solid audience scores.

More than 60 percent of U.S. ticket buyers were 45 and older, including 40 percent over the age of 55. That’s a demo that isn’t known for rushing out on opening weekend; it is also a demo that cares more about reviews. The movie’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score is 61 percent, while the RT audience score is far stronger at 85 percent. It earned a B+ CinemaScore overall, and an A- among moviegoers 35 and older.

Springsteen, showing in a total of 3,460 cinemas, had the advantage of playing in 250 Imax runs and an additional 750 runs in other premium large-format auditoriums, but still couldn’t clear $10 million domestically.

The film is based on the book of the same name and stars Jeremy Allen White in the titular role, 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 Springsteen’s brutal comedown after a blockbuster tour, which yielded the prolific musician’s most personal album, Nebraska (Springsteen worked closely with the filmmakers).

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 — had 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.

At the specialty box office, Neon launched Shelby Oaks in 1,823 locations. Marking YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann‘s debut feature, the found-footage pic opened to a solid $2.3 million. So far, its 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 crowdsourcing platform. Neon later provided some additional funds.

Focus Features’ awards contender Bugonia also made headlines in its limited debut at the specialty box office, and is reporting an estimated opening per-location average of $40,588 from 17 cinemas, one of the best platform starts of the year to date (it will also be the top location average of the weekend by a long shot). Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the acclaimed film stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. It expands nationwide next weekend.

Oct. 25, 9:30 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates.
Oct. 26, 8:17 a.m.: Updated with revised Sunday estimates.
Oct. 26, 12:00 p.m: Updated with Chainsaw Man global estimates.
Oct. 27, 12:00 p.m: Updated with weekend actuals for Regretting You and Black Phone 2.

This story was originally published Oct. 24 at 6:43 p.m.