Demon Slayer: Mugen Train's weekend win sets several new records.
As expected, last week's top two movies suffered heavy slides during week #2. Both films proved to be heavily front-loaded (as evidenced by the fact that Friday was the best day of the weekend for both movies), and both slid in the neighborhood of 70%. However, last week's champ Mortal Kombat slipped more than runner-up Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train, which means the anime was able to take the top spot with $6.4 million.
Even with the big slide, Demon Slayer's win set a number of records. For starters, it becomes the first anime title to win a weekend in North America since Pokemon: The First Movie did so in 1999. It becomes the first foreign language film to top the charts since Hero did so in 2004 (to be fair, many theaters showing Demon Slayer are showing both the Japanese-language version and the English-dubbed version). It becomes the first R-rated animated title to top the charts ever. And, with a ten-day gross of $34.1 million, it passes Dragon Ball Super-Broly to become the highest-grossing non-Pokemon anime title in North America ever.
Kombat came in second with $6.2 million, for a ten-day total of $34.1 million. Given that Warners was hoping for a franchise, this big second weekend drop has to be concerning. I'd still bet good money that Mortal Kombat 2 will happen, but its fate might depend on how the title performs overseas.
Godzilla vs. Kong continues to shuffle along, heading slowly toward $100 million. The battle royale took in another $2.8 million for a total of $90.4 million. No matter what, it will likely hold onto its title of top-grossing pandemic film for at least another month.
Opening in fourth was low-budget horror flick Separation. It opened to $1.8 million, which is roughly what The Courier opened to in March. The two films are very different, but it seems likely that Separation might be heading to a similar final gross between $6 and $7 million.
Raya and the Last Dragon, which is nervously looking over its shoulder, seeing Demon Slayer creeping up toward the title of 2021's highest grossing (fully) animated film, brought in $1.4 million, for a total of $41.6 million. Nobody took in $1.3 million for sixth. Its stands at $23.4 million. Surprisingly leggy horror flick The Unholy came out with $1.1 million, for a total of $13.1 million, meaning it has quietly outgrossed much more hyped horror flicks Come Play and Freaky from last fall. This also marks the first time during the pandemic that seven different films made over a million in one weekend.
Opening in 8th was the 10th anniversary re-release of cult hit Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, marking the first re-release to make the Top 10 since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring made it in February. Opening on only 150 screens, it had by far the best per-screen of the Top 10, even if it only brought in a little over $0.7 million.
Rounding out the Top 10 is Tom and Jerry, nervously looking over its shoulder, seeing Raya creeping up toward the title of 2021's highest grossing family film, and Together Together. Overall grosses for those to are $44.2 million and $1 million, respectively.
Even though Nomadland continues to play in theaters, Searchlight stopped reporting on the film's grosses in March, so it's impossible to tell if winning Best Picture, Actor, and Actress at the Oscars last Sunday boosted this weekend's gross. The Father, starring surprise Best Actor winner Anthony Hopkins, did jump 82%, but that was only good enough for another $150,000. Both Minari, with Best Supporting Actress Yuh-Jung Youn, and Judas and the Black Messiah, with Best Supporting Actor Daniel Kaluuya, declined from the previous weekend.
The first weekend of May is usually the kickoff weekend for the summer movie season, but Black Widow, which had been scheduled for the slot after getting bumped from November (after getting bumped from kicking off the non-existent 2020 summer movie season) got bumped to July. Replacing it is two considerably more low-key releases. The Guy Ritchie-directed Wrath of Man stars Jason Stathem as an armored truck guard who is seeing revenge on the thieves who killed his son. Expect lots of blood and violence. Meanwhile, the much gentler Here Today stars Billy Crystal as a comedy writer in the early stages of dementia who finds a surrogate daughter in street singer Tiffany Haddish. Crystal directs for the first time since the HBO movie 61* in 2001. The old-school action of Wrath should ensure a #1 debut, while Here Today will likely be competing with Mortal Kombat and Demon Slayer for #2. We'll find out how these titles do next week.
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