Weekend projections: Demon Slayer keeps Him in second place on slow weekend

Him is posting a glass-half-empty opening this weekend with a $13.5-million debut that is good for a psychological horror movie at this time of year, but less impressive for a film with Jordan Peele’s name attached (even if just in a producing capacity in this case). That leaves Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Infinity Castle at the top of the chart for a second weekend, even after dropping 75% from its huge opening weekend.

Here are the official studio projections for the three-day weekend (click the image for a full chart of all films reporting so far):

Him’s overall financial performance is helped by a relatively modest $27-million production budget. Even with another $20 million–$25 million spent on marketing, it won’t post a huge loss for Universal. Its C- CinemaScore is a bad sign for word-of-mouth though, and its final box office is likely to fall short of a typical outcome for a film like this (which our model pegs at $38.8 million as of this morning). International earnings are likely to be light, given its subject matter.

In comparison to the performance of Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is unfortunately having a glass-completely-empty weekend, with just $3.5 million expected, in spite of opening in 3,330 theaters. Its reviews have been about on a par with Him, and drama films are more sensitive to weak reviews than horror films, but this is unfortunately mostly a victim of being aimed at an audience that isn’t really going to theaters any more. Sony can at least take comfort in the fact that they’re doing the industry a favor by releasing a film like this in the first case. Hopefully an “if we put it in theaters, audiences will eventually come” strategy will pay off in the long run. The studio can take comfort from the piles of cash Demon Slayer is generating.

Overall, we’re looking a weekend that promised to be slightly up from this time last year, but will end slightly down. Next weekend’s release of One Battle After Another will be the defining moment for the Fall season, with buzz building for another big hit for Warner Bros..

– Studio weekend projections

– All-time top-grossing movies in North America

– All-time top-grossing movies worldwide

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Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com