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NEWS: Demon Slayer Confirmed as #1 Film in America This Past Weekend

I think that the header image for Demon Slayer on ANN just might be the image I associate with ANN from now on since it never changes.

ZelosZoidberg wrote:

I think that the header image for Demon Slayer on ANN just might be the image I associate with ANN from now on since it never changes.

Don't get used to it, this anime is but another fad. Demon Slayer will be overtaken by the next big thing in the years ahead, just as it overtook Attack on Titan.

Still, I am surprised that this movie is so successful in the U.S., despite being a movie based on a manga that, while popular in the U.S., does not have the same level of popularity as stuff like Dragon Ball, Naruto or Sailor Moon. Is the movie so good on its own merits?

7jaws7 wrote:

ZelosZoidberg wrote: I think that the header image for Demon Slayer on ANN just might be the image I associate with ANN from now on since it never changes. Don't get used to it, this anime is but another fad. Demon Slayer will be overtaken by the next big thing in the years ahead, just as it overtook Attack on Titan.

Yes, but I don't think that Attack on Titan did this well. It's really not a fair comparison at this point.

I'm curious about the "movie on its own merits" thing, too, though. Since I'm not a Demon Slayer watcher, can anyone tell me, is this movie a standalone story that can work for people who've never seen the anime before, or is something where you'd be unable to follow the plot if you're not already a fan?

7jaws7 wrote:

Don't get used to it, this anime is but another fad. Demon Slayer will be overtaken by the next big thing in the years ahead, just as it overtook Attack on Titan.

Yes, but I don't think that Attack on Titan did this well.

SakuraShimizu wrote:

7jaws7 wrote: Don't get used to it, this anime is but another fad. Demon Slayer will be overtaken by the next big thing in the years ahead, just as it overtook Attack on Titan. Yes, but I don't think that Attack on Titan did this well.

It didn't. Nothing has, ever. In 2020, a single Demon Slayer volume sold 4.4 million copies. That's more than twice as much as any Attack on Titan volume has sold in a single year. It's more popular than One Piece ever was, even ten years ago at its peak.

ZelosZoidberg wrote:

I think that the header image for Demon Slayer on ANN just might be the image I associate with ANN from now on since it never changes.

Don't get used to it, this anime is but another fad. Demon Slayer will be overtaken by the next big thing in the years ahead, just as it overtook Attack on Titan.

What’s upsetting about this weekend is how these two movies, Mortal Kombat and Demon Slayer, which had very notable openings and further revived the domestic B.O. last weekend, dropped precipitously this weekend, respectively at -73% and -70%.

Essentially, what’s going on here is that there were two movies catering to niche audiences that overperformed last weekend. However, they had limited wide appeal. Both overindexed last weekend because of pent-up demand, as people sought to get out of the house after 13 months of largely lockdown, with both pics’ core audiences seeing them, hence the second weekend drops.

In regards to Mortal Kombat, movies based on hardcore videogames (not Sonic), have a tendency to plummet in weekend 2, i.e. Doom (-73%), 2001’s Tomb Raider (-59%). By comparison, New Line’s 1995 version of Mortal Kombat, which was rated PG-13, declined 56% in its second weekend, with $10.3M at 2,628 theaters.

As far as Mortal Kombat goes, I do believe that the whole simultaneous HBO Max of it all is a leg-killer for their titles at the box office. Why see the movie a second time in the theater when you can see it at home for free?

We always knew Funimation/Aniplex’s Demon Slayer as an anime feature would be front-loaded, which is the B.O. nature of those pics. The distrib’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly in the second weekend following its MLK opening fell 69%. After a $22.3M 6-day opening, that movie stopped its domestic gross at $30.7M. Short runway there.




Both films fell well below our model’s predictions, and their declines are the steepest for wide releases since theaters started reopening. The last film to fall more was The Photograph, which plummeted 77% the weekend after Valentine’s Day last year at a time when the market was already contracting as the extent of the pandemic was becoming apparent. The last film that’s really comparable to these two that fell as much was Dark Phoenix, which fell 72% in its second weekend back in June, 2019.

Given that we aren’t experiencing any significant reversals in COVID-19 infection rates here in the US and Canada, the decline this weekend probably can’t be directly attributed to the state of the pandemic. The awful situation in India might be playing a part by reminding people how things can get is the disease spreads out of control, but a bigger factor is almost certainly that these two films brought out a very enthusiastic core fanbase on opening weekend and haven’t significantly lured in a wider audience this time around.

Feels like being a contrarian for the sake of it. Because no way could anyone be so out of touch with reality, to compare AOT (or anything really, which is the whole point) with Demon Slayer's current popularity.