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1st Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Film Becomes Highest-Grossing Japanese Film Ever Globally

The Box Office Mojo website reported that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle - Akaza Sairai, the first film in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle trilogy, has earned an estimated total of US$555 million worldwide as of Sunday, September 21. The film is now the highest-earning anime film of all time worldwide, as well as the highest-earning Japanese film of all time worldwide. It is also the #9 highest-grossing film worldwide for 2025, after surpassing The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Captain America: Brave New World.

The film earned an estimated US$17.3 million in the United States from Friday to Sunday, thus ranking #1 in the U.S. box office for its second weekend. It is the first anime film to top the U.S. for two consecutive weekends. The film earned US$4,585,000 on Friday, US$7,300,000 on Saturday, and an estimated US$5,415,000 on Sunday. With US$104,730,034 in the United States, it has become the highest-grossing anime film in the country (unadjusted for inflation) and also the first to earn over US$100 million there.

The film earned US$70,611,098 in its opening weekend. Besides breaking the record for the biggest opening weekend for an anime film in the U.S. — unadjusted for inflation, it also broke the same record even when adjusted for inflation by two different measures. The 1999 anime film Pokémon: The First Movie (Pocket Monsters: Mewtwo Strikes Back) previously held the biggest opening weekend record at US$31 million.

The film has sold a total of 23,042,671 tickets for 33,056,606,000 yen (about US$224 million) as of September 15, its 60th day in the Japanese box office. This makes it the second highest-earning film of all time at the Japanese box office, surpassing Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's 2001 film Spirited Away, which earned 31,680,000,000 (about US$315 million in 2001's yen-dollar conversion) to become the #2 highest-earning film of all time in Japan.

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, the October 2020 film from the same franchise, is currently the highest-earning film in Japan, with a 40.75 billion yen (about US$277 million in current conversion) total take in Japan. The film itself surpassed Spirited Away (then the #1 highest-earning film in Japan) in December 2020, two months after it opened in Japan.

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").

Sources: Box Office Mojo (link 2), Deadline (Anthony D'Alessandro) (link 2, Nancy Tartaglione), The Wrap (Jeremy Fuster)