We're coming to the end of a very fun and busy weekend. Halloween was celebrated around the country, which means that people were spending time donning costumes to attend parties and go trick or treating – and for baseball fans, the final two games of an all-time great World Series were played in the evenings on both Friday and Saturday. With these sources of entertainment in play, one thing that people weren't doing in the last few of days was going to the movies, and that is very much reflected in the domestic box office results.
With Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia being the only new major wide release (expanding from playing in limited markets last weekend), Hollywood didn't make too much of an effort to get people into theaters, and the end result is Josh Boone's Regretting You and Scott Derrickson's Black Phone 2 battling for the top spot in the aftermaths of their respective debuts earlier in October. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Regretting You | $8,100,000 | $27,534,000 | 2 | 3,425 |
2. Black Phone 2 | $8,000,000 | $61,454,000 | 3 | 3,305 |
3. Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc | $6,000,000 | $30,769,000 | 1 | 3,003 |
4. Bugonia | $4,800,000 | $5,815,000 | 14 | 2,043 |
5. Back To The Future | $4,700,000 | $220,312,000 | N/A | 2,290 |
6. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere | $3,800,000 | $16,270,557 | 4 | 3,460 |
7. Tron: Ares | $2,800,000 | $67,894,660 | 5 | 2,575 |
8. Stitch Head* | $2,100,000 | $2,495,756 | N/A | 2,162 |
9. Good Fortune | $1,400,000 | $14,620,570 | 6 | 2,150 |
10. One Battle After Another | $1,150,000 | $67,758,000 | 8 | 904 |
Regretting You And Black Phone 2 Are Separated By Just $100,000 In Early Weekend Box Office Numbers
Regretting You didn't exactly have an outstanding opening weekend. The film is the latest adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel following the success of Justin Baldoni's It Ends With Us last summer (which completed its box office run making $349.7 million worldwide), but it didn't make much of a splash in its debut. It had to settle for second place last Sunday, failing to outgross Tatsuya Yoshihara's Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc, which made just $18 million. It was a tough start for the title, but between the Halloween holiday being super slow for theaters and anime titles reliably dropping like stones in their second weekend, the romantic drama has a new shot at a box office crown.
The results aren't final yet, but according to The Numbers, early reporting shows that Regretting You is going to be ranked as the new number one movie in America. For right now, only $100,000 separates it and Black Phone 2 in the ranking, so it's possible that things could change when the true figures come in. The Hoover adaptation made $8.1 million since Friday, bringing its domestic total to date up to $27.5 million.
It should go without saying that the box office trajectory of the new Hoover adaptation isn't nearly as exciting as what It Ends With Us executed last summer. By the tenth day of its domestic run in August 2024, the Blake Lively movie had already earned $97.6 million.
Regretting You didn't get a very positive response from critics when it first arrived in theaters, and the audience reaction has been a bit middling as well, with the film having earned a "B" grade from people who took CinemaScore surveys during opening weekend. It can be said that the title's overall box office performance is being buoyed by its ticket sales in foreign markets, as the movie has made $23.3 million overseas – bringing its worldwide total to date up to $50.8 million.
As for Black Phone 2 (which just so happens to also feature actor Mason Thames in a prominent role), it would seem that the title got a nice little bump from movie-goers seeking out some spooky big screen entertainment for Halloween... but it also didn't exactly do world-stunning business. The feature added $12.9 million to its coffers domestically last weekend – a modest 53 percent drop after its debut at #1 in its premiere – and its ticket sales fell 38 percent during the scariest holiday of the year.
The estimated $8 million that the sequel made since Friday brings its gross in the United States and Canada so far up to $61.5 million. This means that it is basically on the same exact box office trajectory of the original – which is pretty good when one considers that the 2022 Joe Hill adaptation finished its theatrical run having made $90.1 million. Combined with the $43.3 million it has made outside the domestic market, the title has become the latest to join the nine-figured club worldwide, with the return of Ethan Hawke's The Grabber having made $104.7 million.
A feather in its cap: it has outgrossed a number of other 2025 franchise titles globally, including Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant 2 ($103.2 million), Akiva Schaffer's The Naked Gun ($102.1 million) and Simon Curtis' Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale ($100.3 million).
Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc Is The Latest Anime Title To Take A Nosedive In Its Second Weekend On The Big Screen
Within context of the current market place, it can be said that Regretting You and Black Phone 2 performed well-enough at the box office in the last three days – but the most notable thing about the performance of Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc is that, as alluded to earlier, it has continued a rough trend for anime in theaters. We have seen a number of popular titles from the medium earn box office crowns in recent years, but their success has been very short lived.
We just saw a perfect example in September: Haruo Sotozaki's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle set records when it made $70 million in its first three days of theatrical release... but then its box office earnings fell a staggering 75 percent in reporting the following Sunday. The new Chainsaw Man movie didn't do that badly this weekend, but it did still see its ticket sales plummet 67 percent. It's a problem with an obvious cause, as anime fans are very excited to see new releases when they first arrive, but there is a demonstrated inability for the titles to generate word of mouth that brings new audiences to theaters in subsequent weekends.
To date, a much bigger percentage of box office earnings for Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc have come from overseas. The animated feature has made $30.8 million domestically, but it has brought in $129.9 million worldwide.
Bugonia Takes Fourth Place In Its First Weekend In Wide Release
And then there's Bugonia. While team-ups between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone have yielded some truly excellent movies, the industry has not yet seen that acclaim translate into big box office success domestically. 2018's The Favourite and 2023's Poor Things are in a virtual tie as their highest grossing successes in the market (both making $34 million in their respective runs), and it doesn't appear as though the new 2025 film will become a challenger.
Bugonia had an outstanding per theater average when it arrived in limited release on October 22, making $41,756 per location... but that was just 17 cinemas. Now that it's playing nationwide, it had to settle for a $2,349 average and fourth place in the Top 10. Word of mouth may ed up treating it well, as it has earned critical acclaim following festival premieres this fall – but there is also some significant box office competition on the way in November.
Speaking of competition, the list of new releases set to arrive this coming Friday includes Dan Trachtenberg's Predator: Badlands, and it will be interesting to see how it performs following the streaming-exclusive release of 2022's Prey (the previous title in the franchise). Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how things shake out with the Top 10.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
