$13 Million Debut for Him; A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Struggles with $3 Million

According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Sunday update: Universal and Monkeypaw’s horror film Him opened with $13.5 million, failing to top Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which grossed $17.3 million.

On the other hand, Columbia Pictures and Sony’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey delivered a disappointing $3.5 million domestic debut. Starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, and Him produced by Jordan Peele, both films received negative reviews, with audience scores of around 60% and two and a half stars.

Infinity Castle has surpassed $104.7 million in North America, with Saturday grosses up 62% from Friday. Him, however, dropped 33% from Friday to Saturday.

All films combined grossed $77.8 million this weekend in North America, marking a 48% decline from last week and a 4% decline compared to the same weekend last year, when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice earned $25.9 million in its third weekend.

The Conjuring: Last Rites has crossed $151 million domestically in its third weekend, while The Long Walk passed $22 million in its second, ranking third and fourth, respectively. Downton Abbey: Grand Finale, in its second weekend, grossed $6.2 million from over 3,700 theaters, bringing its domestic total to over $31 million.

Saturday update: Him (Universal/Monkeypaw) and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (Sony/Crunchyroll) are each projected to finish the weekend with $15–16 million. After two better-than-expected weekends, overall grosses fell 49% from last week, totaling $76.9 million for all films.

Like most anime releases, Demon Slayer faced a steep 78% drop in its second weekend but will surpass $100 million today.

Him earned $6.4 million on its first day and received a CinemaScore of C-. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave it 28% while audiences rated it 58%, placing it second at the box office.

• A Big Bold Beautiful Journey*, produced by Columbia Pictures and starring Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, was made on a $60 million budget and acquired by Sony for $50 million. It is heading toward a $3.5 million debut, ranking sixth. Despite competing against an anime blockbuster and a horror film, its underperformance marks another flop. Robbie did not produce the film under her LuckyChap banner.

Audience scores for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey came in at two and a half stars on PostTrak and a CinemaScore of B-. By comparison, A24’s Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans, opened to $11.3 million and went on to pass $100 million, supported by a much stronger 79% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Still, Journey does not mark the lowest opening of Robbie or Farrell’s careers. Robbie’s weakest remains Babylon ($3.6M) and Amsterdam ($6.4M), while Farrell’s belongs to Seven Psychopaths ($4.2M).

Demographically, Him drew a nearly even audience—51% male and 49% female—with 41% recommending the film. The crowd was 36% African American, 34% Caucasian, 20% Latino, and 6% Asian. Journey’s audience skewed 59% female, with 44% women over 25. The breakdown was 58% Caucasian, 25% Latino, 8% Asian, and 5% African American.

Earlier: Him grossed $2 million in Thursday previews, slightly ahead of last weekend’s The Long Walk with $1.3 million. Produced by Jordan Peele and starring Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox, and Tyriq Withers, Him was expected to surpass $10 million by the end of the holiday weekend. The Long Walk opened with $11.7 million.

Him received poor reviews, holding a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences gave it 59% approval. The $27 million horror film has so far failed to impress.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (Sony/Crunchyroll) was projected to gross $14–21 million in its second weekend. The film is sharing North American IMAX screens with Him but has retained its PLF auditoriums. Already the highest-grossing anime in U.S. history, it has surpassed Warner Bros.’ Pokémon (1999) with $85.7 million and is on track to become the first anime film ever to cross $100 million in North America.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey grossed just $400,000 in Thursday previews from 2,737 theaters and holds a 40% Rotten Tomatoes score. Initial forecasts predicted a $10 million debut.

Directed by Kogonada, the film follows 37-year-old David, who embarks on a road trip to a wedding in his 1996 Volkswagen Passat with a mysterious GPS. Along the way, he meets a woman named Sarah, who the next day joins him on a “big bold beautiful journey” to Burger King and then a lighthouse museum. Their odyssey continues at an art museum in Chicago, where Sarah finds a chance to reconcile with her late mother.