September box office has hit a significant decline, experiencing a staggering 49% drop from the previous weekend, with total earnings reaching $76.9 million. This downturn comes after two weekends of notable overperformance, indicating a shift in audience engagement. Currently, the competition between Sony/Crunchyroll’s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Universal/Monkeypaw’s Him is fierce, as both films are projected to earn between $15 million and $16 million each over the weekend, leaving it uncertain which will claim the top spot.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is showcasing typical characteristics of an anime film, revealing a heavily front-loaded audience turnout, leading to a dramatic 78% drop in its second weekend. Nevertheless, it is on track to surpass the $100 million milestone at the domestic box office today, solidifying its status as the highest-grossing anime film in U.S. history. In contrast, Him debuted strongly on Friday, raking in $6.47 million with a less than favorable C- CinemaScore, and has received lukewarm reviews, holding a 28% rating from critics and a 58% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The weekend's disappointing news comes from Sony’s romantic drama A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, which has floundered at the box office, earning only $3.5 million against a hefty $50 million budget. This film, which was not produced by Robbie’s company LuckyChap, is struggling in a competitive market, falling behind both an animated feature and a horror movie featuring new and familiar faces like Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans. Critics have highlighted that star power alone cannot guarantee success for original films, especially when they are burdened with poor reviews. The film received a 38% critic rating and a dismal audience recommendation score of 44%.
Despite the strong lineup of stars and a promising script from Seth Reiss directed by Kogonada, the film has failed to resonate with audiences. Comparatively, A24’s Materialists, featuring a star-studded cast including Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, opened to $11.3 million and is projected to exceed $100 million globally. This film has received a far more favorable 79% certified fresh rating from critics and demonstrates the importance of audience perception in achieving box office success.
The audience demographics for Him show a fairly balanced attraction with a 51% male to 49% female ratio, although it has a low recommendation score of 41%. The diversity breakdown reveals 36% Black, 34% Caucasian, 20% Latino and Hispanic, and 6% Asian American attendees. Interestingly, Big Bold Beautiful Journey attracted a predominantly female audience, with 59% women overall, and 44% of women over 25 rating the film more favorably. The social media presence of the film, according to RelishMix, is substantial, boasting 266 million interactions across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, although it trails behind the Sony-Wayfarer title It Ends With Us at 377 million.
The negative sentiment surrounding Big Bold Beautiful Journey has not gone unnoticed, with many viewers expressing concerns over perceived sentimentality and a lack of depth. Critiques liken the film's tone to something generated by artificial intelligence, with comments such as “This feels like a trailer for a fake movie” surfacing on social media. In contrast, Him has performed steadily across various regions, with notable earnings in the West, South Central, South, and East, attributed to its marketing strategy that capitalized on the football season.
In terms of preview earnings, Him gathered $2 million from Thursday previews, surpassing the preview earnings of comparable films like Lionsgate’s The Long Walk and Blumhouse’s Speak No Evil, both of which earned $1.3 million. Critics have not been favorable, with a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, further complicating its potential box office trajectory. As the weekend progresses, the film industry will be closely watching the performance of these releases, particularly how Demon Slayer maintains its lead and whether A Big Bold Beautiful Journey can recover from its rocky start.
