‘Jujutsu Kaisen 0’ Nabs Strong $8.7 Million Friday

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was the top newbie on Friday night, easily besting three lower-profile new releases as the industry waits and hopes for The Lost City to show that there’s more to cinema than superhero movies. The anime fantasy is about a high school student who enrolls in a school for sorcerers to helm him control a cursed spirit. The film is based on the best-selling manga, which has sold 60 million copies in Japan. Oddly, my daughter, who was thrilled to see the Demon Slayer movie on opening night in a Dolby theater last year, has never even heard of this one. She thus far has no interest, and I’m not pushing the subject, but I’ll let you know if she changes her mind.

However, with an $8.625 million Friday (including $2.8 million in Thursday previews) and a likely $19 million debut in a massive (for an anime) 2,336 locations, Funimation and Crunchyroll (who both have the show available on their respective streaming platforms) don’t care whether my kid is interested in this one. Like the $22 million opening of Demon Slayer The Movie in April 2021, the $9 million opening of Christmas With the Chosen in December 2021 and last weekend’s $8.5 million gross for the BTS concert flick, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is showing the importance of niche/event moviegoing when pop culture tastes are more fragmented than ever, and fewer conventional theatricals qualify as multiplex-worthy events. Speaking of, India’s action tentpole RRR will finally open next weekend. Long have I waited…

A24 released Ti West’s X into 2,865 theaters this weekend. The 70’s set horror movie stars Mia Goth, Brittany Snow and (as now required by law for all theatrical horror flicks) Jenna Ortega and concerns six hapless young adults who secretly rent out a farmhouse to film what they hope will be a more cinematic kind of porn flick/adult movie. With mostly rave reviews (I liked it well enough, and it’s terrifically well-made), X earned $1.776 million on Friday (including $440,000 in Thursday previews) for a likely $4.4 million opening weekend. That’s not worth popping the champagne over, but considering the subject matter, the lack of butts-in-seats stars and Ti West’s cult status (it’s not like House of the Devil was a blockbuster), this is probably a best-case-scenario debut.

Focus Features dropped The Outfit into 1,324 theaters as well. The film represents the directorial debut of Graham Moore, who wrote The Imitation Game back in 2014. This small-scale, low-key thriller stars Mark Rylance as an English tailor/cutter living in post-war Chicago who gets embroiled in the local organized crime element. It’s pretty damn good, but it wouldn’t have been a theatrical event even in non-Covid times (while an original screenplay, it feels like it’s based on a stage play). So a $530,000 Friday and $1.44 million opening weekend isn’t exactly a surprise. The film will be on PVOD in a few weeks, and I expect folks to “discover” it in post-theatrical. It’s not precisely Death Trap, but it slightly reminded me of Death Trap.

Finally, the worst for last. Sony opened Stage 6’s Umma into 805 theaters. The tragically lousy Sandra Oh-starring slow-burn horror flick earned just $340,000 on Friday for a likely $800,000 opening weekend. It’s well-acted by everyone involved (including Fivel Stewart, Odeya Rush and Dermot Mulroney). Still, the film is a prime example of the kind of single-location, nothing happens/nothing’s at stake, “but it’s about generational trauma” horror movie that gets so-called “elevated horror” a bad name. If I’m cranky, it’s because releasing a nothing-burger horror movie into theaters is almost an act of sabotage in these “streamers versus theaters” times. For example, Sandra Oh has been excelling on television (Grey’s Anatomy, Killing Eve, The Chair) for decades, but this is how she’s served theatrically?