The anime fever isn’t dying out anytime soon. Following the resounding box-office success of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, which made history as the highest-grossing international film in U.S. history, Sony’s Crunchyroll has secured a second victory with Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc after it surpassed expectations at North American cinemas in its opening weekend.
The highly anticipated film debuted to an estimated US$17.3 million from 3,003 theatres across the country, with overseas markets collecting another US$18.8 million. It now stands at US$108 million globally, a feat few genre works can boast about, and currently holds a 96 percent critics score and a 99 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside an A CinemaScore. Of the haul, US$60.4 million came from the Japanese crowd.
Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara at animation powerhouse MAPPA, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc serves as the direct sequel to the first season of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original story, covering the events that take place in the manga’s fifth and sixth volumes. Hiroshi Seko wrote the screenplay, which follows Denji (Kikunosuke Toya) and his beloved chainsaw-powered, devil-dog Pochita (Shiori Izawa) as a mysterious girl named Reze steps into their world amid a brutal war between Devils, hunters, and secret enemies. However, there’s more to Reze than meets the eye, and Denji soon faces his deadliest battle yet, fuelled by love.
The feature was first announced on 17 December 2023 during Jump Festa 2024, a year after the conclusion of the anime’s first season. Kenshi Yonezu contributed the main theme, “Iris Out”, and the ending soundtrack, “Jane Doe”, featuring Hikaru Utada. It opened in Singapore last month, and is available in both subtitled and dubbed versions.
Heading into the U.S., it was expected to go toe-to-toe against Blumhouse and Universal’s holdover hit Black Phone 2 with a projected gross of US$11 to US$12 million. It slid into No.2, behind Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, followed by Regretting You and Deliver Me From Nowhere in third and fourth place, respectively.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
