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Demon Slayer Projected to Be Only the 2nd Japanese Film Ever to Top U.S. Weekend Box Office

The Box Office Mojo website estimates that the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime earned US$6,399,846 to edge out the new Mortal Kombat film (US$$6,200,000) and win their second weekend matchup at the U.S. box office. (Both films experienced steep revenue drops of over 70% from their first weekend.) If their positions hold after the announcement of the final tallies on Monday, Demon Slayer will be only the second Japanese film ever — and only the second anime film ever — to rank #1 at the weekend box office in the U.S. The first Japanese film was Pokémon: The First Movie over 21 years ago.

Demon Slayer is now the #3 highest-grossing anime film ever (unadjusted for inflation) in the United States with an estimated US$34,118,776 as of Sunday. It surpasses the former #3, Dragon Ball Super: Broly (US$30,712,119), and only trails behind Pokémon: The First Movie (US$85,744,662) and Pokémon 2000 - The Movie (US$43,758,684).

According to The Numbers website, Demon Slayer is less than US$3.5 million from overtaking The Eight-Hundred as the #1 film from 2020 worldwide.

Demon Slayer earned US$21,144,800 at the U.S. box office its first weekend, which makes it the second-highest ever U.S. opening for an anime film (unadjusted for inflation), the highest U.S. opening for an animated film so far this year, and Funimation's largest three-day opening weekend to date. It ranked #2 in its U.S. opening weekend, behind Mortal Kombat (US$22,515,000 in 3,073 theaters).

Funimation and Aniplex of America began screening Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train in theaters in Japanese with English subtitles and with an English dub in North America on April 23, and will release the film digitally on June 22. The film opened on over 1,600 screens, including in 4DX and on IMAX cinema.

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train began screening in Japan on October 16. The film had the highest opening weekend globally for the October 16-18 weekend. The film sold 3,424,930 tickets and earned 4,623,117,450 yen (about US$43.85 million) in Japan in its first three days. The film sold 910,507 tickets and earned over 1,268,724,700 yen (about US$12.03 million) on its opening day alone, making it the highest weekday opening day in Japan ever.

After 12 consecutive weeks at #1 in the box office in Japan, the film dropped to #2 during the January 9-10 weekend, its 13th weekend. The film had ranked in the top three spots weekly in Japan since then, until its 22nd weekend.

The film has surpassed Hayao Miyazaki's 2002 Spirited Away, its last rival for all-time highest earnings in Japanese box office history. (Spirited Away earned 30.8 billion yen in its original run, but has since earned a total of 31.68 billion yen after last summer's revival screenings.) The film has also surpassed Spirited Away as the #1 highest-earning Japanese film of all time worldwide.

Sources: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, The Wrap via Eiga Ranking News, Yaraon!