Box Office: "Demon Slayer" is now an international hit
Tuesday, May 4, 2021 at 1:20PM by Nathaniel R
People are slowly trickling back into movies theaters including Team Experience. There was an actual tight contest for #1 this weekend at the box office. How about that?! The anime hit Demon Slayer, which failed to score a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars, is crying all the way to the bank. After breaking recrods in Japan it's now the first anime film to top the US charts since Pokemon back in 1999. That puts Mortal Kombat at #2 which had the disadvantage of also being free on HBO Max (for another two weeks)...
- Demon Slayer: Mugen Train $6.4 (cum. $34.1)
- Mortal Kombat $6.2 (cum. $34) also on HBOMax
- Godzilla vs Kong $2.8 (cum. $90.3)
- Separation $1.8 new
- Raya and the Last Dragon $1.8 (cum. $41.6) also on Disney plus for extra $
Meanwhile, Godzilla vs Kong has ended its run on HBOMax since it's been out for over a month so it's now only in theaters as its gross approaches $100 million. The Warner Bros tactic of releasing their movies in theaters and on HBOMax simultaneously appears to be paying off... at least in the short term while we're still in the pandemic. We worry that in the long run it will do permanent damage to moviegoing but we'll see.
If you're hankering for kaiju action at home, HBOMax still has nine Japanese Godzilla films available (all from the Shöwa era) from the original Godzilla (1954) through Godzilla vs Gigan (1972)
What did you see this week? We were busy screening the four films for the next Smackdown so we didn't catch any new movies.
Reader Comments (9)
I was celebrating my birthday, hence I saw Another Round. Cheers or Salud!
Mare of Easttown (episode 3) and Bad Trip, of course. Because I'm a prestige kind of guy.
Finally took thirty minutes to see this year’s Oscar winning short film Two Distant Strangers on Netflix. Outstanding entertainment. Provocative and thought provoking. A must see.
FIRST COW finally opened in cinemas here in Australia, and so I was there in the seats (only one in the cinema, fortunately/unfortunately) and absolutely loved it.
Also had time for TWIST (Caine does Dickens without Muppets - not as horrible as all the reviews are suggesting), EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE (saw it in a $9 ticket local theatre, so wasn't too disappointed in the standard 90s-type thriller I got), GUNDA (thanks to Lynn Lee's article yesterday, because I totally misinterpreted the ending) and THE COURIER (good - I wonder if it has the stamina to last until the next Oscar season, because it is the type of film that could be nominated).
Watching the old Godzilla movies outside the first is fun. They have an innocence to them where they know they are hokey but they are in on the fun and something a kid would go gaga over, no wonder the franchise is so everlasting and have such devoted fans.
Are people liking Mare of Easttown? I’m finding it somewhat dull.
I'm finding Mare of Eastown like a novel. Lots of subplots and character development, plus the usual fantastic work from Kate Winslet. How it all ties together will be interesting.
No theater movies this weekend, but did watch the very fucked up "Hard Candy" with Elliott Page and dreamy but naught Patrick Wilson. I really wasn't sure who I saw supposed to root for.
And the remake of "Diabolique" with Sharon Stone and her retro 50's fashion fabulously smoking and plotting murder. Trashy but fun.
Both are on Amazon Prime.
Loving Mare.
1, 2, 3, and 5 are all Asian stories, or based on Asian IP.