Anime was once again king this weekend as the industry begins clearing the deck for a string of notable November releases. With very little opening for Halloween on Friday except one of the greatest and most successful films of all time (we’ll get to that), audiences were left to choose from a Colleen Hoover adaptation, a rock god biopic, an adaptation of an online series of found footage videos, and a Chainsaw Man. Guess what they chose?
KING of the Crop: Anime Rules Again as Chainsaw Man Wins the Weekend
Demon Slayer’s Infinity Castle put its stamp on both anime and animation in general this year with over $131 million in domestic sales and over $650 million globally. Now along comes Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc to best all the live-action films opening this weekend with $17.2 million. The sequel to the first season of the anime TV series opened better than any of Crunchyroll or Funimation releases from 2023 on. Only this year’s Demon Slayer, 2021’s Mugen Train Demon Slayer ($21.2 million) and 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero ($21.1 million) opened higher.
Tales of the top 10: Black Phone 2 drops to second, Regretting You Debuts in Third
Black Phone 2 fell from its No. 1 perch last week down to second with $13 million. That’s a decent 52% drop, which brings its 10-day total to $49 million, ahead of the original’s $47.4 million, which had the advantage of bigger summer weekdays. It also had a $12.2 million second weekend. Overall it is ahead of the numbers of The Exorcist: Believer ($44.9 million) and gained on its second weekend ($10.9 million). Halloween this Friday will give it a slight boost, but right now we are looking at a solid final tally in the $70-80 million region and getting over $100 million globally. Another horror win for 2025. The original made $161 million worldwide. The sequel is currently at half that with $80.4 million.
The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us opened to a whopping $50 million last summer, ultimately grossing over $148 million domestic and $351 million worldwide for Sony. At least two more Hoover novels are on the docket. Reminders of Him is being released by Universal in March 2026, but her fanbase got Regretting You this weekend and only a handful of them showed up. $12.8 million put the $30 million budgeted film in second place. That is just a bit less than what Sydney Pollack’s Random Hearts opened to in 1999. For those that don’t remember the plot of that film, it starred Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott-Thomas, who discover that their spouses died in a plane crash and were having an affair. They eventually hook up and gross $31.5 million domestic and $74.6 million globally at the box office. Regretting You cost less than half of Random Hearts and is hoping to make at least as much for Paramount.
Last December, A Complete Unknown charted a period in the life of Bob Dylan, garnering multiple Oscar nominations and a holiday/awards season run that nearly got it to $75 million domestic. Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere continues in a long-running string of music biopics and it opened to $9.1 million, less than the Dylan film and roughly the same as Oliver Stone’s The Doors back in 1991. That’s also less than the films in the past 20 years about Selena, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, the Notorious B.I.G., James Brown, NWA, Tupac Shakur, Queen, Elton John, Elvis Presley, The Four Seasons, and MercyMe.
That last film was I Can Only Imagine, and it nearly doubled the gross of the Springsteen pic with a $17 million debut. This is certainly disappointing to fans of The Boss (though they certainly could have bought a ticket). It’s not the worst-reviewed film of that lot (though a 61% with critics certainly puts it in the bottom half), but 20th Century Studios is probably most disappointed in the $55 million budgeted film’s awards prospects, which were fleeting enough before the tepid reviews and its $16 million global box office.
The numbers for Tron: Ares just aren’t getting any better week-to-week for Disney, and the stories are already dropping about nine-digit losses for the studio, more than double the minor losses on the 1982 and 2010 films. Another $4.9 million this weekend brings its 17-day total to $63.3 million. Boo! A Madea Halloween had made more at this point ($64.9 million) and even had a much better third weekend ($7.7 million). $70-75 million continues to be Ares’ endgame, and it’s not doing a whole lot better overseas with just $60 million for a global total of only $123 million. Looks like this could be the second biggest bomb of the year after Snow White.
Everyone seems to have a theory as to why Good Fortune failed to connect with audiences when it is likely a simple combination of failed marketing focus and a reluctance to pay for something people feel will be available on streaming soon enough. Whatever the reason, audiences only spent $3.1 million on it in weekend two, bringing its 10-day total to $11.7 million. It’s not going to make the post-pandemic top 10 for R-rated comedies that way, and it only needed $20 million to do so. Speaking of which, Derek Cianfrance’s Roofman with Channing Tatum made $2 million in its third weekend and is over $19 million.
Neon released Shelby Oaks from film critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann. The film premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in 2024, though reshoots occurred in March this year to beef up the gore and violence, which reportedly doubled the budget to $2.8 million. The horror film, which currently sports a 59% on the Tomatometer from film critics-not-turned-filmmakers, opened to $2.3 million in 1,823 theaters. That’s not far off from Neon’s opening of Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool ($2.51 million in 1,835 theaters), and for the time being, Shelby Oaks is the ninth-best opening in the studio’s history among the 12 films they have opened in over 1,000 theaters.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another continues its run towards $70 million. Its fifth weekend after losing over 1,000 theaters brought in $2.3 million, and its domestic total now stands at $65.7 million. Killers of the Flower Moon was at $63.6 million with a $1.9 million fifth weekend in 1,714 theaters. One Battle was in 1,473. Internationally the film passed $100 million last weekend and its global total stands at $180 million. But we are about a month away from the awards season kicking into gear, and you will be hearing less about the money and more about the accolades.
Beyond the top ten: Bugonia Gives Yorgos Lanthimos His Best Limited Opening
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons opened to $690,000 in 17 theaters. That’s a per-theater-average of $40,588, less than the $73,000+ PTAs of Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, which began in just nine and five theaters, respectively. The additional venues for Bugonia resulted in the best limited opening ever for Lanthimos. The Favourite and Poor Things each grossed over $34 million through their awards season runs. Kindness, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer all grossed under $10 million, so we’ll see how the expansion does next weekend for a film unlikely to have a deep awards run.
Last weekend, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind with Josh O’Connor had the best opening of her career with $103,966 in five theaters. This weekend, Mubi moved the film into 186 theaters, which is the widest theater count the critically-acclaimed filmmaker has ever had. As a result, the film had the best second weekend of her career ever with $266,000, higher than Certain Women’s $139,687 in 41 theaters and Showing Up, which made $128,080 in 28 theaters. Speaking of expansion, A24 got If I Had Legs I’d Kick You into 64 theaters for its second weekend and it grossed $152,000. Unfortunately the film may not expand much further.
On the Vine: Back to the Future Celebrates its 40th Anniversary with a Re-Release
It will be a light Halloween weekend for new releases except for one of the greatest films of all-time. Nothing from the major studios are being launched. Apart from the expansion of Bugonia, the animated Stitch Head will be one of the wider releases from Briarcliff, who haven’t opened anything to a million dollars since last December’s Werewolves. Limited releases will include IFC’s Violent Ends with Billy Magnussen, the horror film, Self-Help, Roadside’s Anniversary with Diane Lane, and the re-releases of the Twilight films. Sorry, but none of those are among the greatest films of all-time. That distinction belongs to Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, which Universal will be opening across the country to celebrate its 40th Anniversary. Could it be the No. 1 film again next weekend, just as it was for 11 non-consecutive weeks in 1985?
Full List of Box Office Results: October 24-26, 2025
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – $17.2 million ($17.2 million total)
Black Phone 2 – $13.0 million ($49.0 million total)
Regretting You – $12.8 million ($12.8 million total)
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere – $9.1 million ($9.1 million total)
Tron: Ares – $4.9 million ($63.3 million total)
Good Fortune – $3.1 million ($11.7 million total)
Shelby Oaks – $2.3 million ($2.3 million total)
One Battle After Another – $2.3 million ($65.7 million total)
Roofman – $1.9 million ($19.2 million total)
Truth & Treason – $933,000 ($4.8 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Tatsuki Fujimoto/©Sony Pictures Releasing