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1st Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Film Is Fastest Film to Reach 30 Billion Yen in Japan
posted on by Adriana Hazra
The film has surpassed Titanic to become the #3 highest-earning film of all time in Japan. The film is likely to surpass Spirited Away in Japan in the coming days.
Haruo Sotozaki is directing the anime at ufotable, and ufotable is also credited for the screenplay. Aimer is performing the song "Taiyō ga Noboranai Sekai" ("A World Where the Sun Never Rises"), and LiSA is performing the song "Zankoku no Yoru ni Kagayake" ("Shine in the Cruel Night").
The film opened in Japan on August 29, and ranked at #2 in its opening weekend. The film sold 672,000 tickets and earned 960,867,600 yen (about US$6.46 million) in its first three days. The film now has the highest earning opening three days for a live-action film in Japan for 2025.
The film had its world premiere screening at Cannes during the festival on May 19. The film had an eight-minute standing ovation at its Cannes screening. The film's poster (image left) also won Cannes' Prix Luciole poster competition.
The film will also have its screening at the Centrepiece Section of the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, which will be held on September 4-14; and at the 58th SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia in Spain, on October 9-19.
North American film distribution company NEON (Oscar-winning films Parasite, Anora U.S. distributor) will release the film in North America in early 2026.
Singer and actor Kazunari Ninomiya (live-action Letters from Iwo Jima, Ōoku, Gantz, Assassination Classroom) stars in the film in his first collaboration with writer-director Genki Kawamura (producer on your name., Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom?, Suzume).
In the game, a player is trapped at a subway train station, in an underground passageway that goes in an endless loop. To escape to "Exit 8," the player must keep walking while looking carefully for any anomaly that foreshadows danger.
The film opened in Japan last Friday. Kanna Hashimoto returns from the first film.
A manga adaptation of the film launched on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ service on July 1. Previous Karada Sagashi manga series artist Katsutoshi Murase is again drawing the new manga, Welzard is credited for the original work, and Harumi Doki is again credited for the screenplay, along with the film's producer Yūki Hara. MANGA Plus is releasing the manga in English under the title Re/Member: The Last Night.
Welzard's original cellphone novel on the Everystar site inspired Murase's manga adaptation. The story centers on Asuka, a high school student who sees the apparition of a dead student named Haruka, asking Asuka to find her body. As the story progresses, Asuka and her friends attempt to find the eight scattered pieces of Haruka's corpse in the school, and learn more about the Red Person that is hunting them as they do so. The Red Person hunts students who are alone at school to kill them, and until they exit the school gates, the Red Person will keep appearing before them. When the Red Person kills a student, it scatters the student's body into eight pieces, and tasks another person to find the pieces in the school. If Asuka fails to find Haruka's body, the day will keep repeating and she and her friends will keep dying until they do.
The film opened in Japan on August 8. The film sold 363,000 tickets and earned 450,283,700 yen (about US$3.07 million) in its first three days, and sold 516,000 tickets to earn 633 million yen (about US$4.33 million) in its first four days, which includes Monday (August 11 was the Mountain Day holiday in Japan).
The film is the 32nd 2D animated film in the Crayon Shin-chan series. The "series' first dance entertainment movie" takes place in India, the first time a film in the franchise takes place in the country. (The franchise is very popular in India.) Shinnosuke and the members of the Kasukabe Defense Force dance in the film.
Kento Kaku (live-action Clover, live-action Like a Dragon: Yakuza, Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom) plays Wolf, a dancing, singing Indian billionaire.
Masakazu Hashimoto, who has previously directed many films in the franchise including the 30th film Eiga Crayon Shin-chan Mononoke Ninja Chinpūden, directed the new film. Kimiko Ueno (Eiga Crayon Shin-chan Mononoke Ninja Chinpūden, Eiga Crayon Shin-chan Shinkon Ryokō Hurricane) returned to the franchise to write the screenplay.
The Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- movie began revival screenings on September 2, and did not rank in the top 10, but still earned 56,313,500 yen (about US$382,000) from Friday to Sunday. The film has earned a cumulative total of 2,120,585,700 yen (about US$14.38 million). The film has become the first movie in Japan to surpass a box office revenue of 2 billion yen (about US$13.56 million) with fewer than 100 theaters from its opening day (the film maintained a limited number of screening venues because of its interactive nature, which limits the amount of theaters that can screen it).
The new theatrical screenings of the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz anime ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings in its opening weekend.
The compilation film based on the television anime of Visual Arts/Key's Summer Pockets visual novel dropped from #1 to #2 in its fourth weekend in the mini-theater rankings.
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), Demon Slayer's X/Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Press release, comScore via KOFIC
