Those who expected fall season to whimper along until the blockbuster sequels came out to play during the holidays were certainly not expecting the numbers The Conjuring, er, conjured last week. Even with a Downton Abbey finale, a Stephen King adaptation, and a sequel to one of the best comedies ever, it was time for another record to be broken — this time on the anime side — and Demon Slayer fans made it happen.
King of the Crop: Demon Slayer Dominates with Biggest Anime Opening of All Time
Back in 1988, U.S. audiences were introduced to Akira, which went on to gross $439,162 and over half a million globally. In 1999, Pokemon: The First Movie was released by Warner Bros. and it opened to $31 million and grossed over $85 million domestic and $140 million worldwide. To date, the latter has been the most successful release of an anime film. Until this weekend, that is.
Over the years the genre has found some domestic success with various Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball, and Jujutsu Kaisen films; Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train was the most successful of those titles. Released right in the heart of the pandemic in April 2021, the film opened to $21.2 million and made $49.5 million domestic (outgrossing WB’s release of Mortal Kombat, which was also available at home) and over $453 million worldwide. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle just opened to $70 million, the biggest animated opening of the year and the sixth biggest September opening ever. These films tend to be very frontloaded, evidenced by the fact that few of them even go on to double their opening weekend. That might not matter here, as Infinity Castle should pass the first Pokemon movie next weekend to become the highest-grossing domestic anime release ever. Globally the film has already made over $350 million.
Rotten Returns: Spinal Tap II Fails to Draw a Crowd
You know what I want. You know what I need. 41 years. That is how long it has been since This Is Spinal Tap had a limited release back in the Spring of 1984 (never more than 206 theaters). Since then, the film has had a legitimate following and is hailed as one of the great quotable comedy masterpieces of all time. After more than four decades, Rob Reiner and the cast finally reunited for the sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Enter Bleecker Street, the studio that failed to secure an Oscar nomination for Marianne Jean-Baptiste last year for Hard Truths. The studio that has only had five films gross over $8 million. The studio that has only had one film (Logan Lucky) open to higher than $4 million. By those metrics, a $5 million opening for Spinal Tap II would have felt like a triumph for them. A $1.67 million weekend is an embarrassment.
The original film earned $4.7 million during its limited run in 1984. Spinal Tap II is not even going to make that. However, compare that over time to other films that started as indie favorites but developed cult audiences and ultimately received sequels more than 10 years later. Kevin Smith’s Clerks opened to $31,665 in two theaters and went on to make over $3.15 million in 1994. Twelve years later, the sequel opened to $10 million and made over $24 million. Broken Lizard’s Super Troopers got an initial wider launch in 2002, opening to $6.2 million and grossing $18.4 million. When the crowd-funded sequel was released in 2018 it began with $9.8 million and finished with over $30.6 million. (A third film is currently in production.) Spinal Tap II should have, at the very least, followed similar paths instead of playing second fiddle to a puppet show. Critics have mostly been on board, but “Gimme Some Money” audiences did not, and the band may have been better served by Artie Fufkin again.
Tales of the top 10: The Conjuring Drops, Downton Abbey Is Not Too Shabby
After blowing up all expectations last week, The Conjuring: Last Rites fell 69% down to $26.1 million for a second place finish this week, which is among the all-time falls for a film opening to over $80 million, as you can see here:
Five Nights At Freddy’s (-76.2%)
Fifty Shades of Grey (-73.9%)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (-72.0%)
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (-70.0%)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumiania (-69.9%)
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (-69.8%)
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (-69.1%)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (-69.1%)
The Conjuring: Last Rites (-69.0%)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (-69.0%)
Captain America: Brave New World (-68.3%)
Man of Steel (-68.0%)
Black Widow (-67.8%)
Thor : Love and Thunder (-67.7%)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (-67.5%)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (-67.5%)
Suicide Squad (-67.4%)
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (-67.1%)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (-67.0%)
X-Men: The Last Stand (-66.9%)
That is still the seventh-best second weekend ever for a September release behind It ($60.1 million), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($51.3 million), It: Chapter Two ($39.6 million), Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($34.7 million), Hotel Transylvania 2 ($33.1 million), and Hotel Transylvania ($27.05 million). Its 10-day total of $131 million is also the fifth best for September. Only three films have ever made over $130 million in their first ten days and not reached $200 million: 2021’s Black Widow ($183.6 million), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($196.3 million), and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour ($178.9 million). Last Rites will likely be the fourth, as its sophomore weekend was well belong both Kong and Swift, but with over $332 million in the bank worldwide, this is still another impressive victory for Warner Bros. and the Conjuring Universe. In other Warner Bros. horror news, Zach Cregger’s Weapons, which landed at No. 6 this weekend, is now on VOD but continues to march towards the potential $160 million we have suggested for it for weeks. Another $2.7 million in its sixth weekend brings its total up to $147.4 million. All that wonderful word-of-mouth work and The Conjuring: Last Rites is going to surpass it in less than three weeks.
Despite a valiant effort from Nosferatu last Christmas, the first Downton Abbey film is still Focus Features’ highest-grossing domestic release with $96.8 million; it’s certainly its most profitable and its second highest globally ($194.6 million) behind London Has Fallen. The 2022 sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era is not as high on the list, ranking 18th. Perhaps interest had waned, or it was still in that pandemic period when not everyone had accepted going back to the movies yet. Nevertheless, three years later, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale arrives with a $18.1 million opening, the eighth highest ever for Focus, besting even A New Era’s $16 million start (now their 12th-highest start). The studio has managed to see all their $17+ million beginnings finish with over $50 million. A New Era did not even make half of the first film’s domestic total ($44.1 million). Globally The Grand Finale has started with $30 million.
Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk is the 10th Stephen King adaptation we have had since 2017. (The Running Man will be the 11th in November.) Apart from the It films, which made over $1.17 billion worldwide, they have had a middling run overall at best, with the 2019 Pet Sematary remake and this year’s The Monkey proving to be the most successful. That mid run continues this weekend with an $11.5 million opening, lower than Doctor Sleep ($14.1 million), The Monkey ($14 million), The Boogeyman ($12.3 million), and even The Dark Tower ($19.1 million). On the flipside, it is actually the 14th-best opening for a King adaptation ever, though that changes a bunch when you play the inflation game in the King heyday of the 80s and 90s when the bulk of them were released.
Disney has a big presence in the top 10 this weekend, and their top film is the 30th Anniversary re-release of Pixar’s Toy Story. The film that began the Pixar animation revolution added $3.5 million to its theatrical history. Not quite the re-releases of Revenge of the Sith ($34.1 million final gross), Jaws ($12.7 million to date), or even Princess Mononoke, whose 4K restoration opened to $3.8 million in 330 theaters back in March. But throw in re-releases of everything from Pride & Prejudice (2005) to Shin Godzilla, and never underestimate an audience’s willingness to experience something on the big screen again or for the first time. Case in point: the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music also cracked the top 10 (at No. 10) with $1.49 million in 1,178 theaters this weekend.
As mentioned last week, Hamilton is celebrating just its 10th Anniversary this year. The filmed version of the stage play has been on Disney Plus for several years, until it was finally released in theaters lasts week, and after 10 days, it has grossed $14.5 million. In its second weekend, it even grossed more than Spinal Tap II did, with $1.7 million. Guess some didn’t want to throw away their shot to see Hamilton on a big screen.
Disney’s Freakier Friday continued its slow walk towards $100 million. Over its sixth weekend, it made $2.1 million to bring its total up to $91.1 million. The recent August poster child for slow walkin’ the nine-digit milestone was 2022’s Bullet Train, which at the end of its sixth weekend, had still only made just $92.6 million. It spent the next three weekends of September into October dropping between 23-29% each and scrounging its way to over $101 million at the end of weekend nine. Freakier Friday is now slightly below that film’s pace, making $1.1 million less than on its comparable weekend, and Bullet Train remained in the top three through the same period. Freakier is now down to seventh. It will be close, but there is still enough of a cushion for it to become the 16th film of the year to reach $100 million.
Beyond the Top 10: Fantastic Four Takes Its First Steps Outside of the Top 10
Disney & Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps just got nudged out of the top 10. The film will end its eight-week run on the chart with $272.5 million domestic and $517 million worldwide, one of seven movies this summer to cross half a billion compared to just three in 2024. Universal’s The Bad Guys 2 made $1.15 million. Its domestic total stands at $79.3 million. Globally the film is over $199 million and should be getting into profit for the studio. Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing also grossed an estimated $1.15 million this weekend. It took only three weeks for the film to fall out of the top 10, and it has made just $17.7 million. The animated Light of the World added $950,000 to up its total over $4 million. Mubi’s release of The History of Sound with Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor began with $85,000 in 4 theaters. Finally, Celine Song’s Materialists crossed $100 million across the globe thanks to a steady international audience for several weeks accounting for nearly $65 million of it.
On the Vine: Marlon Wayans Teaches Tyriq Withers What It Means to Be HIM
Jordan Peele may not have a new film on the horizon but he produced next week’s HIM from Universal, with Tyriq Withers and Marlon Wayans, about the literal horror of joining the NFL. From Angel Studios, Michael Chiklis stars as a 59-year-old who gets a chance to play college football again in The Senior from director Rod Lurie. Finally, Sony has Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell going through a cosmic romance in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey from the incredible filmmaker Kogonada (Columbus, After Yang).
Full List of Box Office Results: September 12-14, 2025
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle – $70.0 million ($70.0 million total)
- The Conjuring: Last Rites – $26.1 million ($131.0 million total)
- Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – $18.1 million ($18.1 million total)
- The Long Walk – $11.5 million ($11.5 million total)
- Toy Story (re-release) – $3.5 million ($3.5 million total)
- Weapons – $2.7 million ($147.4 million total)
- Hamilton – $2.2 million ($14.9 million total)
- Freakier Friday – $2.1 million ($91.1 million total)
- Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – $1.6 million ($1.6 million total)
- The Sound of Music (re-release) – $1.49 million ($1.49 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
Thumbnail image by ©Koyoharu Gotoge – SHUEISHA, Aniplex, ufotable
