- Shares
- 50
There’s no stopping Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle from its (infinity) rise to the top, as the highly anticipated sequel has smashed past yet another record. Opening ahead of expectations, it grossed US$70 million in the U.S. and Canada, scoring the biggest debut ever for an anime film at the North American box office.
It’s but one of the other milestones for the Japanese blockbuster and the parties involved — apart from being a record-best for Crunchyroll, it marks Sony’s best outing in recent years and is also the highest-grossing September animated debut in history. The haul is double that of 1999’s Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back, not adjusted for inflation, and continues a second strong weekend in a row following the special two-day run of KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix’s most-watched English-language film to date.
“Put ‘demon’ in your title, and you’re good,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at ComScore. “Animated films just lend themselves visually to the big screen experience, and it’s a genre that is truly global.”
The movie pushed Warner Bros. and New Line’s The Conjuring: The Rites to second place, earning an additional US$26.1 million for a domestic total of US$131.1 million. Both the horror pic and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle surpassed expectations, with the former already scaring up a franchise-best US$187 million worldwide.
Globally, the latter has already earned more than US$300 million, including over US$42 million in Southeast Asia and north of US$200 million in Japan, where it outperformed its predecessor, Infinity Train, to the top spot.
Directed by Haruo Sotozaki at returning studio ufotable, who previously helmed Infinity Train, it picks up after the finale of the fourth anime season, where Muzan Kibutsuji (Toshihiko Seki / Greg Chun) traps Tanjiro Kamado (Natsuki Hanae / Zach Aguliar) and his companions of the Demon Slayer Corps inside his fortress, the Infinity Castle, kicking off a decisive battle between the Demon Slayers and Muzan’s subordinates, the Upper Moons.
The film is the first part of a planned trilogy set to adapt the titular arc of Koyoharu Gotouge’s best-selling manga series. It will be available in IMAX, as well as both Japanese with English subtitles and in English dub, in which Channing Tatum (Deadpool and Wolverine) and Rebecca Wang (Blue Eye Samurai) voice Keizo and Koyuki, respectively.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
