Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
“Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution” opened with $10.1 million for fourth place among films in North America from Friday through Sunday, according to industry estimates released Dec. 7.
The animated feature followed Universal’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” ($63 million), Disney’s “Zootopia 2” ($43 million), and Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked: For Good” ($16.7 million).
In “Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution,” directed by Shota Goshozono and Yosuke Takada, a veil abruptly descends over Tokyo’s busy Shibuya area amid the bustling Halloween crowds, trapping countless civilians inside. Satoru Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, steps into the chaos. But lying in wait are curse users and spirits scheming to seal him away.
Yuji Itadori, accompanied by his classmates and other top-tier jujutsu sorcerers, enters the fray in an unprecedented clash of curses — the Shibuya Incident. In the aftermath, ten colonies across Japan are transformed into dens of curses in a plan orchestrated by Noritoshi Kamo, the most wicked sorcerer in history.
As the deadly Culling Game starts, Special Grade sorcerer Yuta Okkotsu is assigned to carry out Yuji’s execution for his perceived crimes, resulting in a desperate confrontation between Gojo’s two beloved students.
In fifth place was “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’’ ($3.5 million).
A special, 4.5-hour combined release of Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 “Kill Bill: Vol. 1’’ and 2004 “Kill Bill: Vol. 2’’ titled “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair’’ opened to $3.2 million for sixth place.
The two films, which star Uma Thurman and David Carradine, are in part a homage to samurai and kung fu films. The cast includes Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, Gordon Liu as Pai Mei, and Helen Kim as Karen Kim.
Tarantino had planned to release “Kill Bill” as one film, but due to the four-hour run time it was divided into two.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were “Eternity,’’ ($2.7 million), Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet’’ ($2.3 million), “Dhurandhar’’ ($1.9 million). and “Predator: Badlands’’ ($1.8 million).
This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $154 million. The year-to-date total is $8.015 billion, up .82% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.