Demon Slayer Anime Film Earns 39.88 Billion Yen in Japan

The Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime film has sold a total of 28.87 million tickets for 39.88 billion yen (about US$364.9 million) in Japan as of Wednesday. That is an increase of less than 100 million yen (US$900,000) compared to the previous week.

Almost all major cinema chains in Japan have closed their theaters in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hyogo due to the new COVID-19 state of emergency declared in those prefectures. The theaters will remain closed until at least May 11, when the state of emergency is set to end, although the government is considering extending the state of emergency.

As a result of the state of emergency, theaters are delaying the distribution of "Kyōjurō Rengoku's Birthday Commemorative Attendee Gift A5-size Birthday Card (Illustrated by ufotable)" until further notice. Participating theaters throughout Japan would have begun handing out the card on Monday, May 10 — the character Rengoku's birthday.

After 12 consecutive weeks at #1 in the box office in Japan, Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train 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 – 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.

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 screen the film in theaters in North America starting on April 23, and will release the film digitally on June 22.