Once again, the weekend box office is poised to be dominated by the anime smash Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. In our predictions, we figured it would top the charts with about $25 million, and while it’s too early to tell how front-loaded last weekend was, our theory that Him would be the runner-up seems to be right on target. However, we also projected it would pull in $15–20 million, and that now looks overly generous. Based on last night’s previews, the Jordan Peele–produced horror movie is underperforming – badly.
Indeed, Deadline is reporting a $2 million Thursday gross. That suggests a maximum opening of around $15 million, with little chance of hitting $20 million. While highly anticipated, the football-themed horror flick has been tackled by terrible reviews (including one from our own Tyler Nichols), with critics suggesting the film is all style over substance.
Even so, it’s performing much better than Sony’s star-studded A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Despite boasting Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie in the leads, audiences are staying away in droves, with the film grossing a disastrous $400K. Again, this one is getting poor reviews (including one from us). It seems unlikely this one will come anywhere close to the $10 million Sony forecasted, marking yet another pricey flop for the studio. While their films have featured plenty of stars delivering quality work (Caught Stealing was great), audiences just aren’t rushing to see these movies in theaters, preferring instead to wait for streaming.
Meanwhile, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is closing in on the $100 million mark, which would be a first for an anime title. That means we’re looking at another historic weekend at the box office. I’ll be back tomorrow with a full rundown.
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