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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Film Helps Toho's November Box Office Jump 1,063%
posted on by Alex Mateo
TOHO reported on Wednesday that the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime helped its November box office revenues jump 1,063% over the same month last year. Box office revenue for November 2020 was 15,423,752,960 yen (about US$148 million) compared to November 2019's 1,450,595,250 yen (about US$14 million). TOHO's box office earnings for the year thus far are 59,077,510,246 yen (about US$567 million).
Theater closures due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resulted in sharp drops from the previous year from March to May, with May 2020's box office being only 0.6% of May 2019's box office. August 2020 was 77.7% of August 2019, but fell back to 52.2% in September. In October, the month that the Demon Slayer anime film premiered, the box office jumped to 443% of the previous October. October's box office revenue was 16,595,851,250 yen (about US$159 million) compared to September's revenue of 4,215,769,262 yen (about US$40 million).
TOHO also distributed and screened Eiga Crayon Shin-chan Gekitotsu! Rakuga Kingdom to Hobo Yonin no Yūsha and Stand By Me Doraemon 2 in September and November.
The Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime has sold more than 21,525,216 tickets to earn 28,848,875,300 yen (about US$277 million) as of Sunday, its 52nd day in the Japanese box office. The film already earned more than James Cameron's Titanic (26.2 billion yen) last week to become the second highest-earning film of all time in Japan. Only Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (30.8 billion yen) now sits above it, and Oricon projects that Mugen Train could surpass Spirited Away by the end of the year. 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.
Koyoharu Gotouge's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga inspired a television anime that premiered in April 2019, and aired its 26th and final episode in September 2019.
