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Demon Slayer Is Now the #1 Film From 2020 Worldwide
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Numbers website updated its list of the highest-earning films worldwide in 2020, and the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime now stands at #1 with a worldwide tally of US$474.6 million. The film earned the equivalent of US$435 million outside the United States, and US$39.6 million in the United States.
The Numbers reports that the #2 film, China's The Eight Hundred, earned the equivalent of US$472,575,002 worldwide. The Deadline website had reported last month that The Eight Hundred's actual tally was US$450 million, due to fluctuating currency exchange rates.
In Japan, the Demon Slayer film has sold a total of 28.87 million tickets for 39.88 billion yen (about US$364.9 million) in Japan as of May 5.
After 12 consecutive weeks at #1 in the box office in Japan, Demon Slayer 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.
Demon Slayer 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.
The main staff members of the previous television anime returned for the sequel film. TOHO and Aniplex are handling the film's distribution in Japan. Funimation and Aniplex of America will release the film digitally on June 22.
Update: Demon Slayer is the first non-Hollywood or non-American film to top the yearly box office worldwide since the beginning of cinema over a century ago.
Sources: The Numbers, Deadline
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