Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” is holding well at the box office, earning $13.5 million in its second weekend as its running gross total reaches $71 million domestic and more than $100 million worldwide.
That result is roughly a 52% drop from the $28.6 million the music biopic earned from Friday through Sunday, showing that the film is making progress in expanding its audience beyond devoted fans of Bob Marley. “One Love” will face major competition with the release of Warner Bros./Legendary’s “Dune: Part Two” next weekend, but it may have a chance to hold on as an inspirational alternative to the sci-fi epic.
In the meantime, Sony/Crunchyroll’s “Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Training” and Lionsgate/Kingdom Story Company’s “Ordinary Angels” are finding some success respectively drawing out anime and faith-based audiences.
“Demon Slayer,” released in 1,949 theaters, is similar to the recent run of Angel Studios’ “The Chosen” in that it is trying to attract hardcore fans of a TV series to see new episodes in cinemas. “To the Hashira Training” has earned an estimated $11.5 million this weekend, a step above last year’s $10.1 million launch for “Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village.” The film likely won’t make much beyond this weekend as the limited audience of hardcore anime fans tends to leave Crunchyroll titles with very frontloaded theatrical runs.
“Ordinary Angels,” a faith-based film starring Hilary Swank, has opened to $6.5 million from 3,020 theaters, consistent with pre-release studio projections. As is the case with most faith-based films, the core Christian audience gave the film glowing praise with an A+ on CinemaScore and 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics have also been favorable towards the film with an 80% RT score too.
Also releasing this weekend to poor numbers is Focus Features’ “Drive-Away Dolls,” earning just $2.4 million from 2,280 theaters this opening weekend. Directed by Ethan Coen and acquired by Focus for $20 million, the black comedy got somewhat positive reviews from critics with a 65% RT score but was rejected by audiences with a C on CinemaScore.
Among holdovers, Sony’s “Madame Web” took an expected hard fall of 61% from its opening weekend for a second weekend total of just $6 million, bringing the film’s domestic total to just $35 million after 10 days as it is set to be a box office flop against its reported $80 million budget. Universal/Illumination’s “Migration” completes the top 5 with $3 million to bring its modest theatrical total to $120 million domestic and $284 million worldwide against a $90 million budget.
