Move over Ghibli, a new king has been crowned!
We knew that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train was getting close to setting the record. We knew that it could happen at any time, and yet we still weren’t prepared to see it actually happen.
Over the weekend, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie Mugen Train broke the record for the highest-grossing movie ever in Japan by earning just over 32 billion yen in ticket sales. That’s with over 24 million tickets sold in only 73 days of being out in theaters in Japan. The previous record-holder was Spirited Away, which held the record for almost two decades! If you’re wondering, Mugen Train also broke the record for the fastest time to reach that earnings milestone by a country mile. And with 4DX screenings starting this past weekend, it appears the movie is only going to generate more and more of that sweet, sweet yen for big papa Aniplex. Don’t forget that, for a single weekend this past fall, Mugen Train topped the global box office, beating every single other movie released in the world.
It should also be noted that these monetary figures are just for Japan. As in, the movie isn’t available legally anywhere else quite yet. What happens when this movie opens in other large markets such as China and North America over the next couple of years?
Originally a manga created by Koyoharu Gotōge, which launched in Weekly Shonen Jump back in 2016 and ran until May 2020, the series is a dark story about a young boy named Tanjiro who is trying to save his sister after their entire family is slaughtered and she is turned into a savage demon. The final volume shipped on December 4th, 2020 in Japan and there were plenty of people waiting to get their hands on it! Meanwhile, on this side of the ocean, Viz Media has been releasing new volumes monthly since May 2020. The series was turned into a two-cour anime series back in 2019, by now famed studio ufotable, and has been a runaway sensation ever since with fans; both young and adult. In fact, parents aren’t even as respected as the main characters of this series by children, according to a recent survey!
Source: Comic Natalie, Anime News Network
