Despite competition from Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and the new Colleen Hoover adaptation, Regretting You, the new anime import Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc took the domestic box office crown after a fantastic performance over the weekend. The movie arrived in North America only weeks after Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle shattered records and made $70 million in its domestic debut. Like that film, Chainsaw Man is a continuation of a popular anime series, adapted from a manga. The movie opened to near-unanimous praise from both critics and audiences, ensuring a solid run in theaters.
Chainsaw Man grossed around $17 million in its first weekend of release at the domestic box office, where it opened following a theatrical run in Asian territories. The movie had already grossed nearly $70 million internationally before its domestic debut; its worldwide haul now stands at a terrific $85 million. By comparison, Regretting You made around $13 million in its first weekend, while Deliver Me from Nowhere underperformed with less than $10 million. Last year, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown made $11 million in its nationwide expansion, and concluded its run with around $140 million worldwide.
Both music biopics cost around $50 million to produce, although A Complete Unknown earned superior reviews. Deliver Me from Nowhere is currently sitting at a barely-fresh 61% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, whereas Chainsaw Man holds a 96% critics’ score on the platform. The anime film’s audience score, on the other hand, is sitting at an even better 99%. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle earned similar scores on RT, and went on to become the highest-grossing anime movie of all time, overtaking its predecessor, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.
Animation is Having a Tremendous Year
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has grossed over $640 million at the worldwide box office, and is now the second-biggest animated movie of the year, behind the Chinese mega-hit Ne Zha 2. Incidentally, even the year’s biggest streaming sensation, KPop Demon Hunters, is an Asian-inspired animated film. Poised to join those titles, Chainsaw Man emerged as a box office hit primarily because of anime’s growing popularity among Western audiences on streaming. You can watch the movie in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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September 19, 2025
- Director
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Tatsuya Yoshihara
- Writers
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Hiroshi Seko
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Kikunosuke Toya
Denji (voice)
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Shiori Izawa
Pochita (voice)
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Tomori Kusunoki
Makima (voice)
