Infinity Castle Blew Everyone Away At The Box Office

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle” is now the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time at the global box office. What makes its success extra notable is how truly global it is. For now, 2020’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Mugen Train” still holds the all-time box office record in the domestic Japanese market (it made the equivalent of $365.7 million there — 75% of its worldwide total of $486.5 million), but the latest “Demon Slayer” installment has made over 60% of its money outside Japan.

In the United States, “Infinity Castle” has topped the box office two weeks in a row, making over double what “Mugen Train” did in 2021 (though admittedly its predecessor’s theatrical run was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic). It’s surpassed the 1999 release of “Pokémon: The First Movie — Mewtwo Strikes Back” to become the highest-grossing anime and Japanese film in America. As of this writing, it’s less than $20 million away from breaking the record held by 2000’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” for the highest-grossing U.S. release of an international film not originally made in English; while the typical sharp weekend-to-weekend declines for anime films make beating that record uncertain, it’s still within the realm of possibility.

How did “Infinity Castle” manage to break so many records and challenge many more? The answers might be obvious to the fans of Koyoharo Gotouge’s shonen phenomenon, but for those who don’t know their Nichirin from their Nezuko, this article will explain.

Even a decade ago, a non-“Pokémon” anime film topping the U.S. box office was unthinkable. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, anime films rarely played in more than a couple of hundred American theaters at most. Even the semi-wide theatrical runs Disney gave some Studio Ghibli masterpieces never surpassed $20 million. In the 2010s, anime films became a mainstay of Fathom-style “event” releases, playing in more theaters for shorter periods of time. The memories of those blink-and-you-miss-’em showings might be a factor in why the box office of today’s anime movies leans so heavily on opening days and weekends.

In 2021, “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” became the first anime to top the U.S. box office since “Pokémon: The First Movie.” The space that opened up in the emptier COVID-era theatrical landscape for a regular wide release certainly helped, as did immense hype stemming from the film’s records in Japan. But this was also a turning point in just how much anime has entered the pop cultural mainstream. The kids who grew up on “Pokémon” and Toonami are now adults, increasingly with kids of their own, and streaming has made anime more accessible than ever before, creating new fans. It was only a matter of time until an anime movie made true blockbuster numbers stateside. But why “Infinity Castle”?

Technically, there were two “Demon Slayer” theatrical releases between “Mugen Train” and “Infinity Castle” that didn’t light up the box office — 2023’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — To the Swordsmith Village” and 2024’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — To the Hasira Training.” To call these releases “movies,” however, is a stretch: they consist of the last few episodes of the previous seasons of the TV anime, followed by a preview of then-upcoming new seasons. “Mugen Train” and now “Infinity Castle” have a clearer must-see factor, being all new content from beginning to end.

But it’s not just that “Mugen Train” and “Infinity Castle” are new material that makes them a big deal. They directly adapt major arcs from the manga, whereas most shonen anime movies tend towards side-stories that are entertaining but not required viewing to follow the plot. “One Piece” might be more popular than “Demon Slayer” in general, but not every “One Piece” fan felt they had to see “One Piece Film: Red” in theaters the same way every “Demon Slayer” fan lined up for “Infinity Castle.” This might be good news for the upcoming “Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc,” another direct manga adaptation.

One factor making “Infinity Castle” an even bigger deal than “Mugen Train” is that it’s the first part of a trilogy concluding the whole “Demon Slayer” story. Imagine if the final season of “Stranger Things” went to theaters rather than Netflix. It’s no wonder there’s such a rush to see it.

The “Demon Slayer” movies are rated R by the MPA for violence and terror, which might lead some to declare their success a victory for “adult animation.” But make no mistake: like all shonen anime, the series’ target audience is tween and teen boys. Interest not only from Gen Z but also from Gen Alpha is key to the film’s box office success — and no Gen Alpha viewers are old enough yet to buy a ticket for themselves. While more detailed demographic data hasn’t been reported, it’s plausible that this is one of the most kids-and-families-heavy R-rated releases in a long time.

While the violence of the “Demon Slayer” anime keeps it in a late-night timeslot, elementary school-age kids have caught up with it on streaming. The average Japanese grade schooler respects Tanjiro Kamado more than their mom and Shinobu Kocho more than their dad. As dark and disturbing as the series can get, kids understand that it’s fiction. The heroic characters, flashy fight scenes, and a story that doesn’t talk down to them keeps them coming back for more.

“Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” played theatrically in both a dubbed English-speaking version and the original Japanese-language version with English subtitles. Amazingly, the subbed showtimes outgrossed the dubbed ones. This might be in part due to more subbed showings playing on premium large format screens, but it’s still a striking indication of just how much more open American viewers have become to watching movies and TV shows in other languages.

A 2021 Morning Consult survey on the growing popularity of international TV shows like “Squid Game” found that, while the majority of American adults still prefer to watch foreign shows dubbed, a preponderance of Gen Zers and Netflix users actually favor watching programs in their original language. Bong Joon-Ho famously encouraged Americas to “overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” in his Golden Globes victory speech for “Parasite” (via CNN). The success of “Infinity Castle” is evidence that younger generations have already broken through it.