There’s no stopping Demon Slayer at the Japanese box office. Last week, the new movie of the franchise, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, flew past Disney’s Frozen to become one of the top 5 highest-grossing movies ever in Japan. This week, Tanjirou (voiced by Natsuki Hanae in the original Japanese and by Zach Aguilar in the English dub) and the Hashira continue moving upwards and onwards: the anime movie has sunk 1997’s Titanic to slash its way into the top 3 highest-grossing movies at the Japanese box office, with ¥28 billion to its name — which is roughly $191 million. The movie debuts in U.S. theaters on September 12.
This is just one of the many records that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle has broken ever since tickets started getting sold both in Japan and in the U.S. When it premiered in the Land of the Rising Sun back in July, the movie broke the franchise’s own record by becoming the fastest movie to hit the ¥10 billion mark at the box office — a record that was previously held by Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. In the U.S., the blockbuster hasn’t even premiered, and it has already become the best first-day ticket pre-seller for any anime movie ever, once again outperforming Mugen Train and Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
In this scenario, it’s impossible for anime fans not to build anticipation for the new movie — especially when you factor in that they have been waiting to see new adventures of Tanjirou and Nezuko (Akari Kitō/Abby Trott) for over a year. For a lucky few Crunchyroll subscribers, the wait will be over a little sooner than the rest of the Western world. The streaming platform is allowing “Mega Fans” and “Ultimate Fans” to be able to check out the movie on September 9, three days before the official premiere.
The ‘Infinity Castle’ Expansion Begins
In the coming weeks, we will see the true power of Demon Slayer as the movie starts debuting in movie theaters all over the world. This past weekend, Infinity Castle expanded to Southeast Asia, where it broke its slate of records in several countries. Sony reported that the movie has already dominated the South Korean box office with 1.6 million tickets sold in three days, while it became the highest-grossing anime movie ever in Hong Kong and Thailand.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle follows Tanjirou, Nezuko, and their friends as they prepare to battle mega-villain Muzan (Toshihiko Seki/Greg Chun). Before facing him, however, they must fight their way through dozens of demons inside a castle-like location that defies their notions of reality and gravity.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle premieres in theaters in the U.S. on September 12.
AloJapan.com