‘Chainsaw Man - The Movie’ leads global box office in quiet session; Yorgos Lanthimos’s ‘Bugonia’ is top new entry with $9m weekend total

Worldwide box office: October 31-November 2

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

‘Chainsaw Man’ hits $139m total

Faced with fairly negligible fresh competition over Halloween weekend, Sony Pictures/Crunchyroll’s Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc topped the worldwide box office for a second session, despite the film’s takings falling by almost half from the previous weekend.

Estimated box office for the anime in North America was $6.0m (down 67%), and $12.6m across 71 international markets, including 63 for Sony/Crunchyroll.

Totals to date are $30.8m in North America; $108.2m for international (including Toho’s release in Japan, and other distributors in select Asian markets); and $139.0m worldwide.

South Korea remains Sony/Crunchyroll’s top market, with the total now at $20.9m after six weeks of play. In Europe, UK/Ireland ($2.8m), Germany ($2.7m) and France ($2.6m) have achieved similar numbers, after two weekends of play in all cases.

This year, Halloween (October 31) fell on a Friday, and the holiday is not traditionally associated with cinemagoing on the day itself. A lack of powerful new releases in North America plus Saturday’s Major League baseball championships saw total weekend box office for the domestic market dwindle to $49m – the lowest of any weekend so far this year.

With estimated weekend takings of $18.6m, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc has topped the worldwide box office with the lowest total of any film achieving the feat so far this year. Previously, the lowest weekend total for a film topping Comscore’s worldwide weekend chart was in late January, when Mufasa: The Lion King led with $24.1m takings in its sixth week of release, and the top new film was Flight Risk ($16.2m opening).

Chainsaw Man follows in the wake of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle, which was likewise released by Toho in Japan and Sony/Crunchyroll in North America and most international markets. Global total is now $670m – the biggest ever for an anime film, and the fifth-biggest title this year at the worldwide box office (behind Ne Zha 2, Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie and Jurassic World Rebirth).

Also for Sony, Yoroi – the feature debut of French (with Polish ancestry) music video and shorts director David Tomaszewski – was released in three French-speaking markets, grossing an estimated $1.2m. The fantasy adventure stars French rapper Orelsan (for whom Tomaszewski has directed multiple promo videos) as a music superstar who relocates to Japan with his pregnant wife, seeking peace in the manga culture he adores, and discovers a samurai suit of armour that awakens supernatural forces.

‘Bugonia’ expands – hits $11m total

Universal/Focus Features’ Bugonia expanded in North America from an initial platform release in 17 cinemas to a wide rollout in 2,043 sites, grossing an estimated $4.8m for the weekend, and taking the domestic total to $5.8m.

For international, the Yorgos Lanthimos film expanded from a single market (Italy) into 46 territories, grossing an estimated $4.4m, and taking the international total to $5.3m. Those numbers combine to deliver an estimated $9.2m worldwide weekend for Bugonia, and an $11.1m total.

Among international markets, Italy leads with $1.3m after two weekends of play, but UK/Ireland is right behind with an estimated $1.2m from the opening weekend and previews including the BFI London Film Festival and its UK partner venues.

Universal’s preferred comparison title for Bugonia is Lanthimos’ previous feature Kinds Of Kindness. That film’s domestic rollout followed a different pattern, hitting 920 cinemas at maximum width, and the lifetime North American total reached $5.0m. Bugonia has already nearly matched it.

For international, Bugonia is running at twice the pace of Kinds Of Kindness in the same markets at the same stage of release. Kinds Of Kindness reached $11.4m lifetime in international markets, and $16.4m worldwide.

Prior to Kinds Of Kindness, Lanthimos’s Poor Things grossed $117.6m worldwide for Searchlight Pictures/Disney, boosted by awards success including four Oscar wins and five at the Bafta Film Awards.

‘Regretting You’ posts strong holds

Paramount Pictures’ Regretting You has risen from second place to top of the North American box office, and from third to second place in the worldwide chart. The film fell a reasonably slim 41% from the opening session in North America and 30% across international holdover markets.

Josh Boone’s romantic drama, adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel, grossed an estimated $8.1m in North America and $8.2m across 56 international markets. Respective totals are $27.5m and $23.3m after two weekends of play, yielding a worldwide tally of $50.8m.

New markets were led by France, with an estimated five-day $1.0m. Holdover markets were led by UK/Ireland and Germany, both with an estimated $1.2m, and showing respective gentle declines of 25% and 14%.

With a budget reported at $30m, Regretting You has not yet achieved profitability (given marketing costs and revenue shares with cinemas), but does appear to be on a profitable path. Audience scores are running substantially ahead of critics’ ratings, which are weak in aggregate.

Sole key market yet to release is Italy, which welcomes Regretting You on December 4.

Among other holdover titles, Universal’s Black Phone 2 is right behind Regretting You in the worldwide weekend chart, with estimated weekend takings of $15.3m, and a total to date of $104.7m.

‘Back To The Future’ re-release makes top 10 chart

Sneaking into the bottom of the worldwide weekend top 10 chart is Universal’s 40^th-anniversary rerelease of Back To The Future, with an estimated $4.7m for North America. Universal has yet to report international numbers on the rerelease, otherwise that number would be higher. Back To The Future was one of the top performers at the UK and Ireland box office at the weekend.

Just above Back To The Future in the weekend chart are new Chinese release Her Turn and India’s Baahubali: The Epic.

Cheng Yanan’s thriller Her Turn topped the Chinese box office at the weekend in a quiet session. Li Gengxi stars as a partially paralysed women who returns to her family’s mansion after a long absence, uncovering secrets relating to the disappearance of her father.

Baahubali: The Epic comes from RRR director SS Rajamouli, and is a re-edited single-film version of the filmmaker’s two-part saga Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017). Running at close to four hours, the Telegu-language action epic sees a legendary warrior emerge from humble beginnings to challenge powerful forces threatening his homeland.

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