Box Office: ‘Bob Marley’ Still Shining on Top, ‘Demon Slayer’ Landing at No. 2
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Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” will retain its holding as the top film on domestic charts this weekend, besting a trio of new releases in the manga adaptation “Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba — To the Hashira Training,” the faith-based Hilary Swank drama “Ordinary Angels” and Ethan Coen’s lesbian crime caper “Drive-Away Dolls.”
“One Love” added $3.7 million to its domestic haul on Friday, marking a modest 51% drop from its gross seven days ago. After opening on Valentine’s Day, the Bob Marley biopic has now earned a solid $61 million across its first 10 days in North American theaters. To compare against genre contemporaries, it’s pacing a bit ahead of the $50 million that “Rocketman” earned in 2019 across the same period of time, and a chunk behind 2022’s “Elvis,” which nabbed $66 million in 10 days. Worldwide, “One Love” has now surpassed $100 million.
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Crunchyroll and Sony’s release of the new “Demon Slayer” entry looks to take silver. Playing in 1,949 locations, “To the Hashira Training” earned $5.5 million across Friday and preview screenings. The anime film, which is actually a feature presentation of two episodes from the “Demon Slayer” TV series, is now eyeing a debut north of $10 million.
It’s unlikely “Demon Slayer” will ever enjoy the same heights that it did when its first feature adaptation stunned with a domestic opening north of $21 million in 2021, arriving in the weeks following the first public availability of the COVID-19 vaccine. The next franchise entry, “To the Swordsmith Village,” earned a still solid $10.1 million debut last March. Feature-length adaptations of long-standing manga properties have proven to be consistent draws at the box office over recent years, and this new installment is no exception.
Another consistent draw in recent years — faith-based films. Lionsgate and Kingdom Story Company’s “Ordinary Angels” took in $2.3 million from 3,020 locations across Friday and previews. Reviews have been positive and ticket-buyers love the feature, as indicated by the A+ grade determined by early audience survey firm Cinema Score. The film hopes to meet its modest projections of a $5 million to $7 million debut.
Based on a true story, “Ordinary Angels” stars Swank as a hairdresser who decides to help a father and his two daughters, one of whom requires a liver transplant. Jon Gunn directs, while the script is co-written by Meg Tilly and Kelly Fremon Craig, who directed last year’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
Faring even worse is Focus Features’ release of “Drive-Away Dolls,” which didn’t even bother releasing Thursday preview grosses and has only earned $1.01 million so far. The Ethan Coen-directed road comedy won’t even crack $3 million across its opening weekend — a dead-on-arrival start for even a humble specialty label release. Back in 2016, the Coen brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!” got to $11 million over three days — and that was seen as underwhelming at the time. Reviews lean positive for “Drive-Away Dolls,” but they aren’t glowing; it can be difficult for a director-driven feature to break through with audiences without that critical approval. The C grade on Cinema Score doesn’t help matters either.
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan lead the feature as a pair of lesbians who find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that involves dildos, murder and the highest offices in Florida’s government. The cast also sports names like Pedro Pascal, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo and Matt Damon. Ethan Coen directs a script he co-wrote with Tricia Cooke, his wife.
Sony’s “Madame Web” isn’t salvaging much theatrical play after its disappointing $26.2 million six-day domestic opening. The Marvel Comics adaptation earned just $1.57 million on Friday, down 63% from its haul seven days before. Dismal reviews and bad buzz are proving insurmountable. The film will be lucky to push past a $35 million total domestic gross through the weekend — not exactly franchise-starter numbers, considering its $80 million production budget and additional marketing and distribution costs.
Universal’s hit “Migration” and Apple’s misfire “Argylle” are both contending for the last spot in the top five, each projecting grosses of about $3 million. For movie theaters, next weekend’s release of the Warner Bros. sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two” can’t come soon enough.
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