{"id":424026,"date":"2025-09-14T15:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424026\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T15:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:45:10","slug":"demon-slayer-infinity-castle-makes-anime-history-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424026\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Demon Slayer Infinity Castle’ Makes Anime History in U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTalk about an unexpected September bloom at the box office<\/a> that continued this weekend with a cornucopia of new offerings, led by the record-smashing U.S. debut of the Japanese anime<\/a> sequel Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba \u2013 the Movie Infinity Castle<\/a>. The Sony-owned Crunchyroll is handling the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pic came in well ahead of expectations with an estimated $70 million, including a huge Friday haul of $33 million, to score the top opening ever for an anime title at the North American box office. It\u2019s also Sony\u2019s best showing in recent times, as well as a record-best for Crunchyroll. There\u2019s more. It is the top opening of the year so far for an animated title, as well as the biggest September animated debut of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas, Demon Slayer earned another $49 million as Crunchyroll rolled the film out in an additional 49 markets for world weekend haul of $132.1 million. Crunchyroll\u2019s portion of the film\u2019s total gross is $177.8 million (it rolled out in Japan in July, followed by other select markets).<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the second strong weekend in a row for moviegoing after a miserable August, save for a special singalong screening toward the end of the month of KPop: Demon Hunters, the most-watched English-language film in the history of Netflix. <\/p>\n

\n\tTracking had suggested the Demon Slayer would open to $35 million to $40 million; others thought $50 million was far more likely. But it came in even higher as the appetite for the genre grows in the U.S., and after being embraced by critics and audiences alike.<\/p>\n

\n\tDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle\u00a0is the first feature film in the three-part cinematic trilogy representing the final battle of the hugely popular, award-winning anime shonen series from famed animation studio Ufotable. The film has likewise done record-smashing business in Japan, where it debuted in July. <\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Haruo Sotozaki, Infinity Castle adapts the final arc of Koyoharu Gotouge\u2019s best-selling manga series. Voice cast regulars Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro), Akari Kit\u014d (Nezuko), Hiro Shimono (Zenitsu) and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Inosuke) return as the Demon Slayer Corps embarks on a climactic assault against the demon king Muzan Kibutsuji. The film was co-financed by Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Group. International<\/a> distribution comes from Toho, Aniplex and Crunchyroll, with Imax releases planned in over 40 territories worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film also posted historic results for Imax in Japan; ditto for Imax screens in North America.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros. and New Line\u2019s juggernaut The Conjuring: Last Rites<\/a> \u2014 which finished Sunday with a near-franchise best $333 million in global ticket sales \u2014 fell 69 percent domestically in North America for a domestic total of $131.1 million after competing with Demon Slayer for younger moviegoers. Overseas, it raked in a huge $60.5 million as it cleared the $200 million mark at the foreign box office for a worldwide tally of $332.9 million in its first 13 days.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe final big screen adaptation of the beloved British show Downton Abbey placed third with a domestic debut of $18.1 million, in line with expectations. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale<\/a> is likewise benefiting from glowing reviews and audience. Overseas, the movie opened to $12.3 million from its first 31 markets, led by the U.K. with $6.3 million, for a worldwide start of $30.4 million. The female-skewing film (72 percent) played older, with 55 percent of the audience over the age of 55.<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate\u2019s dystopian The Long Walk<\/a>, based on a Stephen King novel, opened in fourth place with an estimated $11.5 million. The acclaimed pic earned a B+ CinemaScore, not unusual for the genre. Demon Slayer and Grand Finale each received an A. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pixar\u2019s seminal animated film Toy Story, Disney is rereleasing the movie this weekend to strong numbers. The pic rounded out the top five with a pleasing $3.5 million domestically for a global total of $5.2 million. And in its second weekend, the rerelease of the filmed adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s Hamilton took in another $2.2 million for total new earnings of $15 million. Disney also did well by a special 60th anniversary rerelease of The Sound of Music, which earned $1.5 million in North America.<\/p>\n

\n\tRob Reiner\u2019s sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues<\/a> started off with an estimated place with $1.7 million to come land at the bottom of the top 10 chart. The sequel to Reiner\u2019s cult-classic mockumentary earned an A- CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\n\tMore to come.<\/p>\n

\n\tSept. 14, 7:45 a.m.<\/strong>: Updated with revised estimates.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story was originally published September 13 at 9:41\u00a0a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talk about an unexpected September bloom at the box office that continued this weekend with a cornucopia of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[11543,106070,64917,77,3943,144844,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-424026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-box-office","9":"tag-demon-slayer","10":"tag-downton-abbey-the-grand-finale","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-spinal-tap-ii-the-end-continues","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115203429505360966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}