{"id":75520,"date":"2025-09-20T16:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/75520\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T16:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:01:07","slug":"big-bold-beautiful-journey-bombs-demon-slayer-him-tie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/75520\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Big Bold Beautiful Journey’ Bombs; ‘Demon Slayer’, ‘Him’ Tie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSATURDAY AM: <\/strong>Refresh for chart and more analysis <\/strong>After two weekends of overperforming, the September box office steps on the brakes, down -49% from last weekend to $76.9M. Sony\/Crunchyroll\u2019s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle <\/strong>and Universal\/Monkeypaw\u2019s Him<\/a><\/strong> are in a dead heat with $15M-$16M apiece<\/strong>\u2014 it\u2019s still too early to call which one is No. 1. <\/p>\n

\n\tInfinity Castle is playing exactly like an anime movie, completely front-loaded, with a second weekend drop around -78%, but as we told you, the highest grossing anime movie at the domestic box office is expected to cross $100M today. <\/p>\n

\n\tHim won Friday with $6.47M and a C- CinemaScore, with Rotten Tomatoes ratings at 28% Critics, 58% audience score. Universal is calling the Jordan Peele produced movie at $15M in second currently, with an anticipated drop on Sunday due to NFL games of -37% for the football horror movie. <\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the sad news of the weekend, and everyone saw this coming: Sony\u2019s play for female moviegoers with the Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell star-studded romance drama, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/a><\/strong>, is finding no road at the box office with $3.5M <\/strong>for the $50M studio acquisition in 6th place. The movie wasn\u2019t developed or produced by Robbie\u2019s LuckyChap. The Sony release is getting beaten by an animated movie and a horror film with a fresh face actor and 1990s comedian (Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans). Many sound the bell for original movies, which this project was, a hot title off The Black List, penned by Seth Reiss and directed by rising auteur Kogonada. However, what this shows is that star power alone attached to non-IP fare, can\u2019t pull in moviegoers when its weighted down by poor critical reviews (this movie panned at 38% with great complaints over its pace), and not-so-hot audience scores with a 44% definite recommend and 2 1\/2 stars on Screen Engine\/Comscore\u2019s PostTrak as well as a B- CinemaScore. Oy. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat said, I understand that the stars and everyone involved had a beautiful experience making the film, in the end the movie didn\u2019t mirror what the script was. <\/p>\n

\n\tBy comparison, the specialty adult summer play, A24\u2019s Materialists, with Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, looks like a blockbuster with an $11.3M domestic opening (and now $100M+ global gross for the net $20M movie). But that had better views at 79% certified fresh. Interestingly enough, Materialists and Big Bold Journey have the same audience exits of B- and mid 60% RT popcorn score. <\/p>\n

\n\tTo that point, some tell me that perhaps, Big Bold Beautiful Journey should have been positioned as a specialty play given its patina, versus a commercial mainstream romance movie. Luckily, the movie isn\u2019t the lowest opening or wide break for either Robbie or Farrell. For Robbie, the movie is under the starts of such misfires Babylon ($3.6M) and Amsterdam ($6.4M) and for Farrell it\u2019s under Seven Psychopaths ($4.2M opening) and above Voyagers ($1.4M). <\/p>\n

\n\tDespite having a social media reach according to RelishMix at 266 million across TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube, which is 57% ahead of other romance movies (but 21% behind the Sony-Wayfarer title It Ends With Us which hit over 377 million on social), there\u2019s a bad stink on Big Bold Beautiful Journey with the analytics corp noticing mixed-to-negative comments. <\/p>\n

\n\tReports RelishMix, \u201cSome viewers smell sentimentality and algorithmic gloss. Skeptics tag the vibe as trailer-deep with lines like \u2018This feels like a trailer for a fake movie\u2019 and point to tonal saccharine with \u2018Touchy feely picture\u2026 emotional diabetes.\u2019 Comparisons skew cautionary with\u00a0Black Mirror\u00a0and even AI commercial jokes, plus a few drive-by age and body takes dragging the cast. Receipts land with \u2018What\u00a0Black Mirror\u00a0episode is this?\u2019 and \u2018Looks like an AI generated commercial.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHim is 51%\/49% men-to-women with a low definite recommend of 41%, but it\u2019s horror, which gives it more mojo than Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Diversity demos are 36% Black, 34% Caucasian, 20% Latino and Hispanic and 6% Asian American. Men over 25 rep 33% of ticket buyers with women over 25 at 31%, men under 25 at 19% and women under 25 at 17% for the R-rated title. PLFs, which are split with Demon Slayer, are driving 37% of the weekend. An even play throughout the country for Him with notable touchdowns in the West, South Central, South and East after a slew of spots since August on football. Best gross in the nation so far comes from AMC Universal\u2019s Citywalk Hollywood (CA) with close to $32K. <\/p>\n

\n\tBig Bold Beautiful Journey saw 59% women with 44% women over 25 (who gave the movie its best grades at 71% on PostTrak). It looks like some guys got pulled into this movie as +1s with the second most-attending demo being men over 25 at 32%. This is further underscored by the stats that close to 40% came with a spouse\/partner\/boyfriend or girlfriend. Diversity demos are 58% Caucasian, 25% Latino and Hispanic, 8% Asian American and 5% Black. A handful of PLFs which only represent 12% of the weekend, I understand with West, Midwest and Mountain regions being where the bulk of the business is. AMC Grove is the top grossing venue so far this weekend with just under $12K. <\/p>\n

\n\tMore\u2026 <\/p>\n

\n\tFRIDAY AM: <\/strong>Universal and Monkeypaw\u2019s football horror movie Him<\/strong> did $2 million<\/strong> from previews that began at 2 p.m. Thursday. That number is just above Lionsgate\u2019s preview take on Stephen King\u2019s The Long Walk ($1.3M) a week ago, and Blumhouse\u2019s Speak No Evil<\/strong> ($1.3M) a year ago. Him, which stars Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox and Tyriq Withers, is expected to open in the mid-teen millions this weekend; The Long Walk opened to $11.7M, while Speak No Evil did $11.4M in its first frame.<\/p>\n

\n\tCritics aren\u2019t sticking around in the stands for Him at 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, and last night\u2019s audience wasn\u2019t impressed at 59%. Yikes. We\u2019ll see where this goes. Him was made for a net $27M.<\/p>\n

\n\tSony\/Crunchyroll\u2019s Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle <\/strong>is expected to stand tall in its second weekend with a take between $14M-$21M.<\/strong> The movie will share Imax screens with Him but hold onto PLFs. Pic\u2019s first week ends at $87.4M after a $2.6M Thursday, down 26%. It\u2019s already the highest-grossing anime movie of all time at the domestic box office, having surpassed 1999\u2019s Pokemon from Warner Bros ($85.7M). Next, Demon Slayer will conquer securing $100M stateside, again a first for anime movie in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n

\n\tColumbia Pictures\u2019 Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie romance A Big Bold Beautiful Journey<\/strong>, is not huge in its previews with $400,000 <\/strong>from Thursday early shows that began at 4 p.m. at 2737 locations. Critics had no patience for this one at 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. No audience score. Sony sees the opening at $10M, others see it much lower.<\/p>\n

\n\tTop five for the week:<\/p>\n

\n\t1.) Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle <\/strong>(Sony) 3,315 theaters, Thur $2.6M (-29% from Wed), Week $87.4M<\/strong>\/Wk 1 <\/p>\n

\n\t2.) Conjuring: Last Rites <\/strong>(NL) 3,802 theaters, Thurs $1.56M (-8%), Week $33.2M<\/strong> (-68%), Total $138.2M<\/strong>\/Wk 2<\/p>\n

\n\t3.) Downton Abbey: Grand Finale<\/strong> (Foc) 3,694 theaters, Thurs $1.38M (-16%), Week $25.3M<\/strong>\/Wk 1<\/p>\n

\n\t4.) Long Walk <\/strong>(LG) 2,845 theaters, Thurs $890K (-17%), Week $16.4M<\/strong>, Wk 1<\/p>\n

\n\t5.) Toy Story 30th anniversary reissue<\/strong> (Dis) 2,375 theaters, Thurs $174K (-33%), Wk $4.4M<\/strong>, Lifetime cume $227.6M<\/strong>\/Wk 1 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SATURDAY AM: Refresh for chart and more analysis After two weekends of overperforming, the September box office steps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[48483,5843,18,117,48484,19,17,327],"class_list":{"0":"post-75520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-a-big-bold-beautiful-journey","9":"tag-demon-slayer-kimetsu-no-yaiba-infinity-castle","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-him","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-movies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}