Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
The anime film “Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc’’ opened with $17.2 million last weekend to lead all films in North America, according to industry estimates released Oct. 26.
The success of director Tatsuya Yoshihara’s big-screen adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga series offers more proof that the anime genre is an emerging box office phenomenon, following last month’s smash “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,’’ which grossed $70 million in its opening weekend.
The “Chainsaw Man” movie is a direct sequel to the first season of the anime television series and adapts events covering the manga’s fifth and sixth volumes. In the series, a young man left for dead following a betrayal is reborn as a powerful devil-human hybrid after merging with his pet devil and is enlisted into an organization dedicated to hunting devils.
In the movie, Denji (Kikunosuke Toya) encounters a new romantic interest, Reze (Reina Ueda), who works at a coffee café. In the English dub, the characters are voiced by Ryan Colt Levy and Alexis Tipton, respectively.
Blumhouse’s horror film “Black Phone 2’’ was second with $13 million, one week after opening in first place, Comscore reported.
Third place went to the romance “Regretting You,’’ which opened with $12.8 million Oct. 24 through 26.
The Bruce Springsteen biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’’ opened with $9.1 million, followed by “Tron: Ares,’’ which took in $4.9 million in its third weekend in theaters.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were “Good Fortune,’’ a comedy starring Keanu Reeves, Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogan ($3.1 million), “Shelby Oaks’’ ($2.35 million), “One Battle After Another’’ ($2.33 million), “Roofman’’ ($2 million) and a re-release of 2012’s family horror film “ParaNorman’’ ($991,910).