Demon Slayer Crushes Him at the Weekend Box Office Despite a Massive Week-to-Week Plunge
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle kept the weekend crown, easily beating Him despite a steep week-to-week drop and becoming North America’s highest-grossing anime film.
Big weekend, messy weekend. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle stayed on top like everyone expected, took a heavy hit (because anime openings are always front-loaded), and still managed to make some history. Meanwhile, Jordan Peele produced a new horror movie and audiences shrugged, The Conjuring franchise pulled a late-in-the-game flex, and one starry original took a faceplant. Let’s break it down.
Demon Slayer keeps the crown (and sets a record)
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle held the No. 1 spot with $17.3 million. Yes, that’s a steep 76% drop from last weekend, but that’s par for the course when superfans rush out on opening night. The bigger story: it sailed past $104 million domestic, making it the highest-grossing anime release in North America ever, and it’s not close.
Him opens soft despite the Peele halo
Him, produced (but not directed) by Jordan Peele, stumbled to a $13 million debut after rough reviews and word of mouth. The CinemaScore is a brutal C-, which tells you the football-meets-Faust premise didn’t connect with crowds. It’s not a total disaster, but expect a sharp drop next weekend.
The Conjuring: Last Rites is the surprise fighter
Here’s the weekend’s curveball: The Conjuring: Last Rites muscled into the conversation for second place, pulling $12.95 million in its third weekend. That pushes it to $151.7 million domestic, making it the top earner in the Conjuring universe to date. Eleven years into this franchise and it still finds new ceiling. Wild.
Middle of the pack: steady, not flashy
Lionsgate’s The Long Walk dipped a modest 46% in week two, earning $6.3 million and bringing its total to $22.7 million. It should leg out to around $30 million domestic, and between overseas and streaming, that should put it safely in the black.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale matched Long Walk at $6.3 million, bringing its cume to $31.6 million. It’s pacing to land in the neighborhood of A New Era, which finished at $44.1 million domestic.
Ouch: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey stumbles hard
The weekend’s biggest misfire is A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which opened to just $3.5 million. On a $50 million budget, that’s rough, especially with Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell on the poster. The good news for them: Farrell has The Batman 2 on deck, and Robbie’s got a Withering Heights remake that should play much better.
Notables and holdovers
Angel Studios delivered a crowd-pleaser with The Senior, banking $2.7 million and an A CinemaScore. Toy Story’s 30th Anniversary re-release added $1.4 million for a $5.8 million total. The live stage production Noah didn’t hit the Disney Hamilton highs but still cracked the top 10 with $1.386 million. And Weapons wrapped up its run in tenth with $1.26 million, sitting just shy of $150 million domestic — it should cross that milestone this week.
Next weekend: can a critical darling take the belt?
One Battle After Another arrives with some of the year’s best reviews and a giant budget to justify. Does it have enough juice to dethrone Demon Slayer and start earning that money back? We’re about to find out.