Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, the latest instalment in the Demon Slayer universe, has broken multiple records in Japan and abroad to become not only the highest-grossing anime film ever worldwide but also the biggest Japanese film of all time.
The anime film Infinity Castle, the first of a planned trilogy, is based on one arc of the popular 2016 manga series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge. The manga series follows a young boy named Tanjiro Kamado and his sister Nezuko Kamado after they find their family slaughtered by demons. It follows the pair as they embark on a quest to fight demons and save Nezuko from a curse.
A previous film, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, was released in 2020 and performed very well both critically and commercially.
Distributed by the Sony-owned Crunchyroll and made on budget of $20m (£14.82m), Infinity Castle stayed at No 1 at the US and Canada box office, bringing in $17.3m (£12.8m) in just its second weekend after setting the record for the largest anime debut ever in the region by opening to a massive $70m (£51.8m) when it released on 12 September, according to multiple US outlets.
Its total earnings after nine days in US theatres are currently at $104.73m (£77.6m).
In the US, Infinity Castle even surpassed the previous record-holder for anime openings, Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back, which grossed $31m (£22.9m) in 1999.
In Japan, where it was released on 18 July, Infinity Castle has taken ¥34.01bn (£170.4m) as of mid-September, making it the country’s second-highest grossing film of all time.
Its opening day alone brought in ¥1.64bn (£8.2m), and its three -day opening weekend gross of ¥5.52bn (£27.6m) was the largest in Japanese cinema history, a Deadline report stated.
The film also became the fastest ever to cross the ¥10bn (£50.1m) milestone in Japan, doing so in just eight days with 7.5 million tickets sold.
The film has also seen record-breaking openings across Europe, with France debuting at $8.6m (£6.37m) and Germany at $8.2m (£6m), both the largest anime openings of all time in those markets.
The film’s current global haul stands at $665m (£492.6m), according to Entertainment Weekly, making it the highest-grossing anime film in global box office history, surpassing not only Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, which made $395m (£292.7m) and Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, which made $405m (£300m), but also franchise predecessor Mugen Train, which made $506m (£375m).
The film’s distribution strategy has further contributed to its numbers. Crunchyroll confirmed that the film will not be available on streaming until 2026, which has likely drawn the series’ existing fanbase to the theatres.
Critically acclaimed as well, Infinity Castle has drawn near-universal praise, earning a 98 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69 on Metacritic.
The runaway success of Infinity Castle points to anime’s gradual shift from a niche fandom into the mainstream. Earlier this year, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters too saw a similar response, becoming the platform’s most-streamed movie and with enough staying power that it was released in theatres for a limited run, where it reportedly made $16-18m in ticket sales.
