Anime returns to the top of the domestic box office, as “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” appears to be released ahead of other new releases, the Bruce Springsteen biopic “Deliver Me From Nowhere” and the Colleen Hoover adaptation “Regretting You.”
The R-rated film “Chainsaw Man” earned $8.5 million Friday and preview screenings of 3,003 locations. The feature film, which is a big-screen continuation of the manga adaptation’s first season, is expected to gross an initial $15.5 million. It’s available in subtitled and dubbed versions, and is getting a boost from showing in Imax and other high-end large-format auditoriums, for which tickets cost more.
It’s another victory for Sony’s animation label Crunchyroll, which in September achieved its parent studio’s biggest opening of the year with a historic $70.6 million debut for “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle.” “Chainsaw Man” will achieve only a fraction of that blockbuster figure, but the fact that a new anime is once again topping the charts, above two English-language features from mainstream Hollywood studios, is a testament to how theatrical appetites have changed in recent years.
Reviews are good for “Chainsaw Man,” but more importantly, audiences love it, as indicated by an “A” rating from the movie fan survey company Cinema Score. Anime is almost always strong at the box office, with most fans rushing to opening weekend screenings. The bulk of the North American gross will likely arrive this weekend, but “Chainsaw Man” is already in a good place for producer Mappa with $61 million in overseas revenue.
The race for second place is tighter, with “Regretting You” narrowly leading ahead of sophomore release “Black Phone 2.”
Paramount’s “Regretting You” opened with $5.2 million Friday and previews, including special fan event screenings featuring live Q&As. The multi-generational drama directed by Josh Boone and produced by Constantin Films is now projecting a $13 million opening.
That would surpass tracking, which predicted a debut of between $8 million and $10 million. It’s not the box office force that “It Ends With Us,” Colleen Hoover’s first feature film adaptation, was in August 2024. This Blake Lively starrer launched with a $24 million opening day and a $50 million debut — against a slim production budget of $25 million. “Regretting You” cost $30 million to produce.
Reviews were also relatively harsh for “Regretting You”, while Cinema Score earned an average “B” grade. (Complement to the “A-” earned by “It Ends With Us.”) The ensemble drama, rated PG-13 and starring Mckenna Grace, Mason Thames, Allison Williams, Dave Franco and more, is the first in an ongoing wave of Hoover adaptations. “Verity” and “Reminders of Him” remain on other studios’ rosters.
As of Friday, “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” which stars “The Bear” frontman Jeremy Allen White as the boss, earned $3.5 million in its opening day, including advance screenings, at 3,460 locations. He’s looking to meet his pre-weekend forecast for a debut of between $8 million and $12 million, although he’ll have to put up a fight to reach the eight-figure side. The PG-13-rated biopic also shares Imax and other PLFs with “Chainsaw Man.”
Comparing 20th Century Studios’ “Springsteen” to last year’s Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” – another period musical drama, from Disney’s Searchlight Pictures label. This Timothée Chalamet vehicle debuted with a slightly higher $11.6 million over three days, before building up Oscar buzz over the holidays and the first weeks of January to reach $75 million domestically and $140 million worldwide.
“Deliver Me From Nowhere,” directed by Scott Cooper, has similar awards aspirations, having held film festival previews attended by Springsteen himself in Telluride, New York and at the AFI Fest. But reviews have been mixed compared to “A Complete Unknown” and the film won’t have the benefit of playing during the holiday season. Audiences love the film, with Cinema Score getting a “B+” grade. But with a hefty production budget of $55 million, “Deliver Me From Nowhere” will have to compete to stay relevant with moviegoers in the weeks to come.
Still with a chance for second place, Universal’s release of “Black Phone 2” added $3.7 million Friday and is headed for a $12 million second weekend, a 56% drop from its opening. The horror sequel looks to take its domestic total to $48 million through Sunday, a hair ahead of its 2022 predecessor ($47 million over 10 days). It already ranks as Blumhouse’s highest-grossing North American release of the year – a rebound after lining up a slate of theatrical non-debutants earlier in 2025, although “Black Phone 2” is also the most expensive of the lot with a production budget of $30 million.
Disney’s “Tron: Ares” looks to round out the top five, earning another $1.3 million on Friday, a 48% drop from its daily total from a week ago. Now in its third weekend of release, the sci-fi revival quickly tanked in theaters and grossed just $59 million in North America – a dismal result for an IP piece with a production budget of $180 million.
Also open this weekend, Neon is bringing its horror mystery “Shelby Oaks” to 1,823 locations. The R-rated original feature, which has average reviews, earned about $1.1 million through Friday and previews and appears headed for a seventh-place finish.
