‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ breaks anime box office records, beating Hollywood movies

by

An anime film slayed its Hollywood competition at the box office this weekend.

The anime film “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” has become the top-earning movie in the U.S., surpassing recent releases like “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” “The Long Walk,” and “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.” It was already very popular in Japan.

The new anime film, released by Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll, earned an impressive $70 million in ticket sales across the U.S. and Canada – exceeding expectations and marking the biggest opening weekend ever for an anime movie. It’s also the highest-grossing animated film debut of the year in North America.

Sony, the company behind the anime brand and streaming service Crunchyroll, earned $132.1 million globally this weekend, counting revenue from 49 countries outside of the US.

According to Box Office Mojo, “Demon Slayer” has earned over $272 million worldwide, with Japan accounting for $213 million of that total.

Hollywood Inc.

The widespread success of ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,’ a collaboration between Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures, demonstrates anime’s increasing popularity around the world.

The popularity of “Demon Slayer” is good news for movie theaters, especially since other types of films-like superhero movies, comedies, and original animated features-haven’t been performing as well. It also shows how anime is becoming increasingly popular around the world.

The new “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” is part of a larger popular anime franchise.

This is the first of three planned movies that will conclude the battle between the Demon Slayer Corps and the demons they were originally formed to fight. A previous film, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train,” was a major success in 2020.

Focus Features’ new “Downton Abbey” movie earned $18.1 million in ticket sales across the U.S. and Canada, landing it in third place for the weekend. It followed the second weekend of New Line’s “The Conjuring: Last Rites.” Also opening was Lionsgate’s “The Long Walk,” adapted from a Stephen King story, which took fourth place with $11.5 million in domestic sales.

“Spinal Tap II,” a sequel to the 1984 mockumentary comedy classic, opened with a weak $1.7 million.

Read More

2025-09-14 19:31