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.