The shrunken state of moviegoing in North America has left the field wide open for films with dedicated fringe audiences to dominate many a box office weekend.

“Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc” is the latest Sony Crunchyroll import to take over theaters for a weekend or three. It did a decent Thursday night and solid Friday ($8.5 million) to set itself up as this weekend’s “Demon Slayer,” a $17.25 million take (per Thenumbers.com) that in the absence of anything from Hollywood to tear people away from the World Series or anything else on TV, is enough for a win.

The two big Hollywood releases are the would-be awards bait bio-pic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” and the Colleen Hoover (“It Ends with Us”) romantic weeper “Regretting You.” “Black Phone 2” tailed off to $13 million and came in second. “Regretting” cleared $12.85 million and came in third place, “Springsteen” only clearing $9.1 million, and without “awards” hype, it’ll disappear as fast as that country music documentary he made a few years back.

The only people who review these anime action/fantasy franchises are generally fans or panderers to the fans, so it’s hard to say “Chainsaw Man” will be boosted by critical acclaim. It’s hard for most of the reviewing fraternity/sorority to work up much enthusiasm for this corner of anime. The animation is unexceptional, the stories and characters lack much beyond video game characters in terms of depth. They’re “content” and they have a fanbase, but…

At least this will push “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle” out of the top ten, but not before that big fall hit finishes collecting $135 million.

“Regretting You” is earning poor reviews as Hoover’s high-toned romance novel has no Blake Lively to recommend it, just nepo babies Allison Williams and Scott Eastwood, along with Dave Franco and McKenna Grace.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” has all sorts of things going for it — rock history, one of the most popular acts of the ’70s-90 — and a brooding, downbeat subject (Bruce’s depression and the reasons for it) and is built around his most indulgent, least pop-rock friendly LP “Nebraska” and its creation works against it. A mopey lead performance by Jeremy Allen White and a general joylessness characterized it for me. Others weren’t as kind.

Springsteen may be an icon, but he and his audience have aged out of the moviegoing habit so anything much over $10 million at the box office would have been a shock. You either worship him or wonder why your parents or

still do.

“Tron: Ares” is skidded into fifth place with a $4.9 million tally.

“Good Fortune” is sticking around another week, earning just over $3.1 million in sixth place.

The non-franchise horror title “Shelby Oaks” may be from Neon, a reliably challenging/entertaining distributor but fell short of $2.4 million mark and only will see the backside of the top ten (7th).

“One Battle After Another” clings to the Top Ten with an 8th place $2.3 million take. It’s cleared $65 million and could get a bump as awards season heats up.

“Roofman” is poised to clear $20 million by Tuesday, fading fast with a ninth place $2 million weekend.

“Truth & Treason” ($933k) landed in tenth.

The new titles shoved “After the Hunt,” “Conjuring: The Last Rights,” “Soul on Fire,” ” and “Gabby’s Dollhouse” out of the top ten.