‘Jujutsu Kaisen O’ Tops ‘X,’ ‘Outfit’ And ‘Umma’ With $18 Million Weekend

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was the top newbie of the weekend, pulling in a solid $17.7 million Fri-Sun launch. Even with a 2x weekend multiplier, it again showed the commercial power of popular anime/manga properties. It was just over a year ago when Demon Slayer the Movie went toe to toe with Mortal Kombat and nabbed a $21 million debut before earning $49 million domestic (while MK had to settle for $42 million and comparatively strong HBO Max viewership). Of course, the anime action epic was 2020’s biggest global grosser, having earned around $400 million in Japan the previous year and eventually becoming the year’s only $500 million-plus grosser. This flick, a prequel to a popular manga which sold 60 million copies in Japan, has already earned $113 million there since last December.

Funimation and Crunchyroll (who both have the show available on their respective streaming platforms) opened the PG-13 fantasy, about student who enrolls in a high school for sorcerers to help control a cursed spirit, in a massive (for an anime) 2,336 locations, including a healthy number of IMAX, Dolby and related PLF auditoriums. Like the $21 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/fan-specific 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 (it’s exceptionally well-made and surprisingly moving even if I didn’t find it that scary or “extreme”), X earned a $4.4 million opening weekend. 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. X is destined for cult status, with a prequel already in development. Call it a situational victory.

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, the single-location potboiler feels like it’s based on a stage play (not a criticism, because it works). So a $1.51 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, in a good way, of Death Trap.

Sony opened Stage 6’s Umma into 805 theaters. The tragically lousy Sandra Oh-starring slow-burn horror flick earned an expectedly poor $915,000 opening weekend. It’s well-acted by everyone involved (including Fivel Stewart, Odeya Rush and Dermot Mulroney). It 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. 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? Yes, the lack of mid-budget programmers is part of why your favorite actors are starring in eight-hour miniseries about infamous grifters or tech flameouts.