{"id":226595,"date":"2025-09-14T16:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T16:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/226595\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T16:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T16:51:11","slug":"infinity-castle-opens-to-70-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/226595\/","title":{"rendered":"Infinity Castle’ Opens to $70 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cDemon Slayer<\/a>: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle\u201d ruled over the box office<\/a>, debuting to a mighty $70 million and setting a record for the biggest opening ever for an anime film. Its haul more than doubled the $31 million benchmark that had been set by 1999\u2019s \u201cPok\u00e9mon: The First Movie \u2013 Mewtwo Strikes Back.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInfinity Castle,\u201d the first installment in what is meant to be a series-capping trilogy for the property, is playing in both subtitled and dubbed versions. It is also showing in many premium large format theaters such as Imax, which carry steeper ticket prices and add to its haul. \u201cInfinity Castle\u201d has already earned more than $300 million globally, including more than $200 million in its native Japan where it has become the country\u2019s third-highest-grossing release of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tSony\u2019s anime distribution banner, Crunchyroll, backed the film and gave the studio a big hit after a relatively quiet summer that saw it release misses like \u201cCaught Stealing\u201d and more modest performers such as \u201cKarate Kid: Legends\u201d and \u201cI Know What You Did Last Summer.\u201d \u201cInfinity Castle\u201d also beat \u201cBad Boys: Ride or Die\u201d ($56.5 million) to become Sony\u2019s biggest domestic opener in over two years. <\/p>\n

\n\tLast weekend\u2019s champ, Warner Bros. and New Line\u2019s \u201cThe Conjuring: Last Rites,\u201d settled for second place, dropping 69% to earn $26.1 million. That brings the film\u2019s domestic total to $131.1 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tBoth \u201cThe Conjuring: Last Rites\u201d and \u201cInfinity Castle\u201d have shattered projections, lifting the September box office, which had been expected to be sluggish, while bolstering exhibitors hopes for a stronger than expected fall after a disappointing summer season<\/a>. It\u2019s been a topsy turvy period at the multiplexes, filled with sleeper breakouts like \u201cWeapons,\u201d as well as franchises like Marvel that are no longer performing at their former levels. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInfinity Castle\u201d follows in the footsteps of Netflix\u2019s \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d which became the streamer\u2019s most popular film ever and topped the box office when a sing-along version was released in theaters last month. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPut \u2018demon\u2019 in your title and you\u2019re good to go,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at ComScore. \u201cAnimated films just lend themselves visually to the big screen experience and it\u2019s a genre that is truly global.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cInfinity Castle\u201d wasn\u2019t the only new wide release. There\u2019s \u201cDownton Abbey: The Grand Finale<\/a>,\u201d intended to serve as a farewell to a franchise that spawned a TV program and several big screen adventures. Released by Universal\u2019s specialty label Focus Features, \u201cThe Grand Finale\u201d pulled in $18.1 million. That\u2019s an improvement from the prior entry in the grand houses and the servants and aristocrats who populate them series, \u201cDownton Abbey: A New Era,\u201d which debuted to $16 million in 2022. The audience for \u201cThe Grand Finale\u201d was overwhelmingly female (72%), white (73%) and older (57% over the age of 55). <\/p>\n

\n\tOther new releases include Lionsgate\u2019s Stephen King adaptation \u201cThe Long Walk<\/a>,\u201d which launched in fourth place to $11.5 million, and Bleecker Street\u2019s \u201cSpinal Tap II: The End Continues,\u201d a sequel to a beloved cult comedy that earned $1.7 million while taking tenth place. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Long Walk\u2019s\u201d opening is muted. However, the film, which was directed by Francis Lawrence (\u201cThe Hunger Games\u201d) and stars up-and-comers like Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, only cost $20 million to produce, minimizing the studio\u2019s financial risk. Lionsgate has had a rough stretch at the box office, fielding misses like \u201cAmericana,\u201d \u201cHurry Up Tomorrow\u201d and \u201cBallerina.\u201d But salvation may be in sight, with Lionsgate releasing an adaptation of the best-seller \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d the Aziz Ansari comedy \u201cGood Fortune\u201d and \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t\u201d in the back-half of 2025. \u201cThe Long Walk\u201d attracted an audience that was 59% male and 71% over the age of 25. <\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s re-release of \u201cToy Story\u201d hit $3.5 million in 2,375 theaters. The 30th anniversary reissue of Pixar\u2019s first feature looks to round out the top five.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the arthouse front, Mubi released \u201cThe History of Sound,\u201d a historical romance with Paul Mescal and Josh O\u2019Connor, in four theaters, where it earned $85,786 for a per-screen average of $21,446<\/p>\n

\n\tThe success of \u201cInfinity Castle\u201d has led to one of the top grossing September weekends of all time with an estimated total for all films of around $145 million, which is a 50% improvement on the same weekend a year ago when \u201cBeetlejuice Beetlejuice\u201d topped charts in its second week of release. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSeptember is becoming a month to remember at the box office,\u201d said Dergarabedian. \u201cAnd that\u2019s good news, because summer really ended with a whimper.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle\u201d ruled over the box office, debuting to a mighty $70 million…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":226596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[207,90227,171,53,12758,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-226595","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-kimetsu-no-yaiba-infinity-castle","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-the-long-walk","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115203688736871837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}