5 Reasons Why Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc Ruled The Box Office

Anime is once again on top at the box office. Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll have scored their second number one movie in just a handful of weeks, with "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" besting the competition with a bigger-than-expected debut. Meanwhile, several other newcomers opened slightly below expectations, which paved the way for anime to win the day.

Director Tatsuya Yoshihara's cinematic take on "Chainsaw Man" opened to $18 million domestically, easily giving it the number one spot over last weekend's champion "Black Phone 2" ($13 million). Meanwhile, "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere" opened soft with just $9.1 million. At one point, it looked like these two movies would be in a tight race for the crown, but that's not how things panned out. The weekend's other newcomers, "Regretting You" ($12.8 million) and "Shelby Oaks" ($2.3 million), also opened on the lower side of estimates.

Heading into the weekend, "Chainsaw Man" and "Springsteen" were both expected to do over/under $17 million. Clearly, the anime crowd was far more motivated, which resulted in another big win for Sony on the anime front mere weeks after "Demon Slayer: Infinity Train" broke records.

So, what went right here? How did this TV-show-turned-movie surprise the industry with a number one opening? Is this a fluke? Or is anime here to stay? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" topped the box office in its debut. Let's get into it.

One of the biggest things working in favor of "Chainsaw Man" in his first trip to the silver screen was an utter lack of meaningful competition. With all due respect to the weekend's other newcomers, none of them had a lot of juice in the first place, relatively speaking, and all of them came in at the lower end of projections, which created a very favorable situation for Sony and Crunchyroll's latest anime offering.

"Regretting You" couldn't quite become the next 2024's "It Ends With Us," which opened to $50 million en route to $350 million worldwide. That doesn't mean it's a flop, but it was going for a different crowd in the first place, and bad reviews poisoned the well to some degree. As for "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere," the Bruce Springsteen biopic had far less appeal than "Elvis" or the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown." Meanwhile, "Shelby Oaks" only resonated with the hardcore horror crowd.

All of that said, that's why "Chainsaw Man" was able to come out on top with less than $20 million. Under better circumstances, $18 million would put a movie at second or third place. But on a rough weekend in October, it was good enough for a chart topper. Timing is usually everything.

When it comes to franchise filmmaking aimed at hardcore fandoms, reception can be especially important. In the case of "Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc," the filmmakers hit it out of the park. The movie has been met with near-universal praise, which not only set it up well for its domestic debut, but it could also help give it legs in the weeks to come.

As of this writing, the movie holds a stellar 96% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go with an incredible 99% audience rating. In further good news, it earned an A CinemaScore, which is one of the better indicators we have of how well a film will perform beyond opening weekend. Given that the "Chainsaw Man" franchise is absolutely going to continue beyond this movie, Sony and Crunchyroll have to be feeling good right about now.

This could be a major momentum builder for both the show and the inevitable film sequel that we will undoubtedly be getting in the coming years. "Chainsaw Man" is great gateway anime, meaning this franchise's audience has a lot of room to grow. This movie is only going to further boost its profile in the mainstream in North America.

"Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" began rolling out overseas back in mid-September, with Toho handling the release in Japan. That theatrical run has been going very well, as the movie has made $90.7 million at the overseas box office to date, including $18.7 million internationally this past weekend.

Combined with its domestic opening, the movie has made nearly $109 million worldwide against a budget said to be as tiny as $4.1 million. Even if the budget isn't that small, these anime movies are rarely expensive, meaning it's already a money-maker for all involved. More to the point, that international release helped build buzz for North American audiences, who were eager to see what all of the fuss was about for themselves.

Granted, "Chainsaw Man" didn't get anywhere near "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" and its $70 million opening, but that certainly doesn't have to be the bar for anime. That movie, for what it's worth, has made $666 million worldwide and counting. Again, that's more of an outlier, but similarly, overseas hype helped tee up the ball in the U.S. for that one. It's a strategy that seems to be working very well for Sony.

Sony stepped in to purchase Crunchyroll in 2020, getting into the anime business in a big way. Crunchyroll later merged with Funimation in 2022. It's one of the most meaningful investments by a major Hollywood studio in anime to date, and it was hard to know how that was going to play out. Would Sony just look at it as a business it needed to be in without knowing what to do with it once it had it? Or was the studio going to take it seriously? Without question, it's the latter option.

Indeed, there's zero doubt at this point that Sony is committing to the anime business and sees Crunchyroll as a meaningful potential moneymaker. The studio is truly investing in it and trying to do right by fans, all while expanding the potential audience (particularly in North America, where these films have been growing by the year). That wouldn't have been possible if Sony hadn't truly put its weight behind these releases.

From properly targeted advertising to Sony treating these movies with respect, that $1.2 billion Crunchyroll purchase is paying off. More than that, it's an asset that is going to continue to grow in the coming years. As the hits continue to stack up, the evidence suggests that Sony knows what it has and is trying to maximize the potential.

What is crystal clear right now is that anime is having its big mainstream moment in North America. This is something that has been building for some time, dating back to "Demon Slayer" topping the charts in 2021. But the success of "Chainsaw Man" confirms without question that these aren't flukes that should be written off. Anime has made it to Hollywood, and the audience is growing by a lot.

Just look at "KPop Demon Hunters" topping the box office with $19 million months after its release on Netflix. It's now Netflix's biggest movie ever. For all of Netflix's investment in big-budget potential franchise starters, it's anime that allowed it to score its biggest original hit to date. There's also the success of "The Boy and the Heron" in 2023, which can't be discounted in the larger conversation.

Meanwhile, "Demon Slayer: Infinity Train" is now by far the biggest anime movie ever at the box office, having pulled in an astounding $132 million domestically alone. That would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago. It's clear that momentum is building for anime in the broader cultural sphere. It's becoming mainstream and is no longer a niche on the fringes of a very specific fandom. Rather, it's becoming the next big thing in the U.S.

"Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc" is currently playing in theaters.