With the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie already absolutely shattering the all-time Japanese box office record back in December (which was previously held by Spirited Away), it’s time for the Demon Slayer train (see what I did there?) to take its show on the road and make its big debut in North America.
To get audiences ready for the North American theatrical debut that is happening in early 2021, Funimation released a dubbed 90-second trailer to their official blog, which you can check out below.
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.
The movie was first released in Japan on October 16th, 2020, in Japan and, as previously mentioned, quickly became the highest-grossing movie ever in Japan. At one point, it even topped the global box office! The movie features animation from ufotable and features the same cast and crew as the television series. The movie is a direct sequel to the television series. It’s licensed by Aniplex and was streamed in Japanese and English by Funimation.
Unfortunately, it’s not looking likely that North America will have things under control anytime soon, so I doubt that the box office sales over here will be nowhere close to the totals in Japan.
Source: Funimation