‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ breaks another record, tops domestic box office for second weekend

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN

(CNN) — Hollywood has long viewed anime as a modest but steady genre at the domestic box office. But the unexpected success of “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” has forced the industry to rethink the potential of Japanese animation to draw big audiences to theaters.

“Infinity Castle,” distributed by Sony-owned Crunchyroll, fell 76% from its opening weekend, but still finished No. 1 at the box office, raking in $17.3 million Friday through Sunday and bringing its total earnings to $104.73 million after nine days in US theaters.

An anime film vastly outperforming expectations has been a long time coming. There have been more than 100 anime movies released since 2000, yet none have reached $50 million at the domestic box office. A poll released in January 2024 from Vox Media and Polygon showed that 42% of Gen Z say they watch anime weekly.

In the case of “Infinity Castle,” it has helped that the latest installment from the popular “Demon Slayer” franchise has drawn acclaim from critics, receiving a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69 rating on Metacritic.

“I think studio heads and movie theaters should be very happy that, if this becomes a trend rather than an anomaly, it will add another category of film to the quiver of potential content to put on the big screen,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

The sustained attention “Infinity Castle” has received from Gen Z and Gen Alpha has been a key driver for not just the movie but for the anime genre, and provided Sony and Crunchyroll with the surprise hit of September.

Dergarabedian said it’s “somewhat unprecedented” for an international anime movie to perform so well domestically.

Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of analytics firm Box Office Theory, said the movie’s buzz coming from younger moviegoers “can be a double-edged sword” because the interest can die off quickly or it can gain momentum by adding new audiences, reminiscent of the expectation-shattering run that Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” had this year when it pulled in $162.75 million in its opening weekend, and finished with $424 million.

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The record-breaking opening weekend of “Infinity Castle” may have broadened the realm of anime to US moviegoers who otherwise wouldn’t have considered watching a “Demon Slayer” movie, said Robbins.

“That can really inspire people to go and check out something that they might not have heard of otherwise,” Robbins said, adding that the movie brought out “virtually all corners of the anime world,” including viewers with a passing interest.

On Friday, “Infinity Castle” became the highest-earning anime movie domestically, surpassing another record previously held by Warner Bros. 1999 hit, “Pokémon: The First Movie — Mewtwo Strikes Back” ($85 million).

Box office lags behind ‘Infinity Castle’

While “Infinity Castle” topped the weekend box office, the No. 2 movie was Universal Pictures’ and Monkeypaw Productions’ “Him,” which opened to $13.5 million, falling short of expectations.

David A. Gross, who writes industry newsletter FranchiseRe, said that Jordan Peele, who is one of the producers of “Him,” is “primarily responsible” for its success despite poor critic ratings. “Him” has a 29% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Original films that opened this weekend had a tougher time because if you don’t have the greatest reviews and you have very little brand recognition … it makes it a little tougher,” Dergarabedian said.

Also in theaters this weekend was Warner Bros.’ “Conjuring: The Last Rite” ($12.95 million), which came in third overall.

Lionsgate’s “The Long Walk” and Focus Features’ “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” tied for fourth place with $6.3 million each.

The weekend box office finished at around $75 million Friday through Sunday, compared with last year’s roughly $83 million, according to Dergarabedian. That leaves the overall box office up just 4.38% since January, compared with the same time last year, according to Comscore data.

“Last weekend was unusually big because ‘Demon Slayer’ opened to over $70 million,” Dergarabedian said, adding that “we would have hoped for more (this weekend),” but “that’s just the ups and downs of the box office.”

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