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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Earns Hochi Film Award for Animation

The Hochi Shimbun newspaper revealed on Wednesday that the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime film has won the animation category in the newspaper's 45th Hochi Film Award. The other films (including non-Japanese animated films) nominated in the category include ON-GAKU: Our Sound, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's New Dinosaur, Onward, Marona's Fantastic Tale, Violet Evergarden: The Movie, Omoi, Omoware, Furi, Furare, The Addams Family, Missing Link, and Stand By Me Doraemon 2.

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train has sold a total of 20,532,177 tickets for 27,512,483,050 yen (about US$265 million) in 45 days as of November 29. The film has now earned more than James Cameron's Titanic (26.2 billion yen) to become the second highest-earning film of all time in Japan. Only Spirited Away (30.8 billion yen) now sits above it. Mugen Train already topped China's Legend of Deification as the highest-grossing animated film worldwide in 2020, and it displaced Dolittle as the #6 film worldwide in 2020.

Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train began screening in 38 IMAX theaters in Japan on October 16. The film had the highest opening weekend globally for the October 16-18 weekend. The film sold 3,424,930 tickets and earned 4,623,117,450 yen (about US$43.85 million) in Japan in its first three days. The film sold 910,507 tickets and earned over 1,268,724,700 yen (about US$12.03 million) on its opening day alone, making it the highest weekday opening day in Japan ever.

The main staff members of the previous television anime returned for the sequel film. TOHO and Aniplex are handling the film's distribution in Japan. Funimation and Aniplex of America will screen the film in theaters in North America in early 2021.

Sources: Hochi Shimbun, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)