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Demon Slayer Anime Film Earns Estimated US$9.5 Million on Friday in U.S. to Rank at #1
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Box Office Mojo reported on Saturday that the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime film earned an estimated US$9.5 million in its first day at the box office in the United States on Friday (Deadline reports these numbers include Thursday night screenings). The film ranked at #1 on Friday, beating out Mortal Kombat, which earned an estimated US$9.03 million. Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train screened in 1,598 theaters on Friday, whereas Mortal Kombat screened in 3,073 theaters. Variety reported that Godzilla vs. Kong earned US$1.1 million on Friday.
Deadline predicts both films will earn more than US$19 million over the weekend, but also predicts that Mortal Kombat will edge out Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train for the #1 spot over the weekend.
In comparison, the January 2019 U.S. theatrical release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly earned US$9.8 million in its first three days, and US$11.95 million in its first four days. The film eventually earned US$30.7 million in the U.S.
Funimation and Aniplex of America began screening the film in theaters in North America starting on April 23, and will release the film digitally on June 22.
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train began screening 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.
After 12 consecutive weeks at #1 in the box office in Japan, the film dropped to #2 during the January 9-10 weekend, its 13th weekend. The film had ranked in the top three spots weekly in Japan since then, until its 22nd weekend.
The film has surpassed Hayao Miyazaki's 2002 Spirited Away, its last rival for all-time highest earnings in Japanese box office history. (Spirited Away earned 30.8 billion yen in its original run, but has since earned a total of 31.68 billion yen after last summer's revival screenings.) The film has also surpassed Spirited Away as the #1 highest-earning Japanese film of all time worldwide.
Sources: Box Office Mojo, Variety (Brent Lang), Deadline (Anthony D'Alessandro)
