A weekly film and box office newsletter. Howdy, folks! And we're back. Good news for the box office, bad news for another Hollywood studio and everyone's fretting about just how much a WBD sale will shrink Warner Bros. Pictures' output. First, the good news: Anime continues to be a consistent hitter at the box office. "Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc," a feature film continuation of a hit anime series, exceeded expectations with $17.2 million this weekend, scoring the No. 1 slot over presumed winner "Black Phone 2." This is yet another success for Sony and Crunchyroll, who hit huge this summer with "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" to the tune of a $70 million opening weekend. It's also great for theaters, as anime has proven to be a consistent hitter at the box office — especially in fallow periods for new releases, like we're in now. On the other hand, 20th Century Studios' Bruce Springsteen biopic "Deliver Me From Nowhere" tumbled with a $9 million opening. Music biopics are a tough genre anyway, but 20th was hoping for a performance similar to Timothee Chalamet's "A Complete Unknown." The playbook felt similar — trailers that played up "The Bear" star Jeremy Allen White's transformation, social media videos that roped in younger-skewing musicians like Lucy Dacus to interest Gen Z and Millennials, and even a takeover ad campaign on the cinephile-friendly Letterboxd. Alas, the $55 million-budgeted film failed to generate much buzz and even critics were mixed on Scott Cooper's decision to make a Bruce Springsteen biopic about a period of time in which he mostly sat alone, depressed in a room by himself writing "Nebraska." And speaking of 20th Century Studios, plenty have pointed to the severely reduced output of the studio after Disney acquired Fox as Paramount sets its sights on acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. What's to become of Warner Bros. Pictures? David Ellison has insisted that with Paramount, he wants to increase theatrical output, not decrease it. But 20th essentially became a farm for Hulu movies in the immediate wake of the Disney acquisition, and only recently — under the stewardship of Steve Asbell — has been making interesting moves in the theatrical space. There's a cruel irony in that the WBD sale news came as recently re-upped Warner Bros. Pictures studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy just got to the rollout of their first slate of films they greenlit, and it's a tremendous run of critical and commercial successes from both valuable IP and original stories. What becomes of them if Warner Bros. Pictures is bought by Paramount? Or Netflix or Amazon? As Samuel L. Jackson says in "Jurassic Park," hold on to your butts. Adam Chitwood 
Box Office: Anime scores, but Jeremy Allen White's Bruce Springsteen is dancing in the darkIn another quiet weekend for the box office, Sony and its anime... 
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