The new Demon Slayer movie set a new Box Office record for an anime title in the US, more than doubling the previous benchmark.
Infinity Castle, which covers one of the key arcs in Koyoharu Gotouge’s hugely popular manga, has been distributed by Sony subsidiaries Aniplex and Crunchyroll in Japan and the US respectively. It’s considered a key title by the company as it strengthens its stranglehold on anime.
According to Variety, the movie pulled in an astonishing $70 million over its first weekend in America, which is more than double the previous record holder Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back managed over 25 years ago. That flick amassed $31 million.
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube166k
Infinity Castle is playing in both subtitled and dubbed formats, and is also being shown in Imax, which has obviously improved the average selling price of its tickets.
Nevertheless, the film’s success has been global, with it raking in an eye-watering $200 million domestically, making it Japan’s third highest-grossing movie of all-time.
Sony sees anime as an enormous growth vector, especially considering the sector’s surging popularity among youngsters.
In addition to its acquisition of Crunchyroll, it’s also made a series of strategic investments into the likes of Kadokawa and Bandai Namco, as it looks to strengthen its position in the space.
Of course, Demon Slayer is not the only anime-adjacent hit Sony’s had this summer: it also made the wildly successful K-Pop Demon Hunters for Netflix, which has gone on to become the streaming service’s most watched movie of all-time.