Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle opened in U.S. theaters over the past weekend with a record-breaking performance that somehow surpassed even the expectations of the franchise’s most hardcore fans. With over $70 million, this is the best opening ever for an anime movie (breaking the record held by Pokémon: The First Movie), the best for Crunchyroll, and even the best for Sony (which acquired the anime distribution and streaming platform in 2021) over the past two years.
It’s also the biggest ever U.S. opening for a foreign-language movie, and by an enormous margin, too: the previous record-holder was Hero, the Jet Li martial arts movie, which opened to $17.8 million in 2004.
The Demon Slayer franchise has been teaching everyone in the entertainment and anime business an invaluable lesson in marketing and strategy over the past five years. After Mugen Train became the highest-grossing anime movie in history in 2020, Demon Slayer has been piecing out its releases throughout anime seasons, compilation films, and finally a trilogy of movies that is set to conclude the saga, beginning with Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.
Based on the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge, Demon Slayer has become an international sensation since studio Ufotable produced an anime that was able to exalt the manga’s compelling story with spectacular visuals, the likes of which anime fans hadn’t seen in a long time. Timing also played an important role in the success of the franchise: The first season of the anime started airing internationally at the end of 2019, leading to many fans discovering and binge-watching it during the pandemic lockdowns. The franchise’s first movie, Mugen Train, opened in theaters during a brief relaxation in COVID-19 restrictions in October 2020, becoming the highest-grossing anime movie of all time worldwide.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle sits at an important spot for the franchise, as it opens the long, final battle against the main villain of the story, Muzan, and his top minions. To see the outcome of that fight, however, fans may have to wait for a long time, as Ufotable has not announced a timeline for the release of the next two movies. Considering the quality of the work of the animation studio, expect at least one year between each installment, if not more.
