- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba-Infinity Castle– $70M
Once again, an overseas animated hit has taken over the domestic box office, just as KPop Demon Hunters did weeks ago. Sony and Crunchyroll’s English dub of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba-Infinity Castle opened with $70M, making it the biggest stateside debut of the year for an animated film. It also had a whopping $21K per site average, easily the largest of the week. No surprise given the popularity of this subgenre, critical and audience response was high and in the upper 90s on Rotten Tomatoes. Worldwide, the $386M haul is still short of the previous film, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, but it could surpass that in a few weeks if this continues.
2. The Conjuring: Last Rites– $26.1M/$131M
3. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (review)- $18.1M
Focus Features released Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale into 3694 theaters and earned $18.1M, which is slightly ahead of A New Era‘s $16M back in 2022. And yet it falls way short of the original movie’s $31M in 2019, and likely won’t match its $194M ceiling despite strong reviews from critics and audiences alike.
4. The Long Walk (review)- $11.5M
Lionsgate’s adaptation of Stephen King’s first book, 1979’s The Long Walk, opened to $11.5M which is about as expected. The film starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, and Mark Hamill about a life-or-death walking competition was directed appropriately enough by The Hunger Games‘ Francis Lawrence. It’s a grim movie, I personally felt exhausted after watching it, but audiences and critics responded well to it. The likelihood is that most people who went to see it already knew what they were in for.
5. Toy Story– $3.5M
Disney has two celebratory re-releases in the top 10 this week, because who needs original content when you can remake or re-release everything successfully? The 30th anniversary (!!!) of Toy Story broke the top 5 with $3.5M at 2375 theaters.
6. Weapons– $2.7M/$147.4M
7. Hamilton– $2.2M/$14.9M
8. Freakier Friday– $2.1M/$91M
9. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues– $1.6M
Forty years after the heavy metal mockumentary Spinal Tap became a comedy classic, a sequel nobody asked for was attended by, well, nobody. Bleecker Street’s Spinal Tap II: The End Continues brings back director Rob Reiner, and stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, but they only managed $1.6M in 1920 theaters. That’s good for just an $872 site average, suggesting that even those who could see it chose not to. No surprise here. Guest’s mockumentaries (Best In Show, A Mighty Wind) haven’t been in fashion for over a decade, and Reiner hasn’t had a hit since 2007’s The Bucket List.
