Demon Slayer Film Edged Out by Mortal Kombat for U.S. Weekend Box Office Crown

Box Office Mojo reported on Sunday that the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime earned an estimated $19,542,227 in the United States in its opening weekend, with a US$12,213 per-theater average over 1,600 theaters. The film earned an estimated U$6,445,970 on Saturday and an estimated US$3,560,000 on Sunday. The film ranked at #2 in its opening weekend in the U.S., behind the new Mortal Kombat film (US$22,515,000 in 3,073 theaters).

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train has the highest per-screen average in the United States since the Sonic the Hedgehog film over a year ago. The film earned an estimated US$9,536,257 in its first day at the box office in the United States and ranked #1 on Friday. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film has earned US$407,697,666 so far worldwide.

In comparison, the January 2019 U.S. theatrical release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly earned US$9.8 million in its first three days, and US$11.95 million in its first four days. Dragon Ball Super: Broly eventually earned US$30.7 million in the U.S.

Funimation and Aniplex of America began screening Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train in theaters in North America on April 23, and will release the film digitally on June 22.

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 (Chris Nashawaty), Variety (Rebecca Rubin)