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Demon Slayer Film Tops Japan's DVD Chart for Record-Tying 5 Weeks
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The DVD release of the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train anime has now ranked #1 on Oricon's overall weekly DVD chart for five consecutive weeks. During the July 12-18 week, it sold 11,628 more copies for a new cumulative total of 583,285.
The film is the first DVD release since December 2004's special edition Japanese DVD of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 16 years and six months ago to rank #1 on the Oricon overall weekly DVD chart for five consecutive weeks. Mugen Train is only the third DVD release to do so; the first one to achieve the feat was the special edition Japanese DVD of The Matrix in March 2000. Mugen Train is also the first DVD release to rank at #1 for five consecutive weeks on Oricon's animation weekly DVD chart.
The anime film had sold 1,074,170 copies total of its Blu-ray Disc and DVD releases in Japan (including both the limited and regular editions) in only three days since it debuted on June 16. The film's regular editions have surpassed the sales for the limited editions of Frozen 2, the previous record holder for highest first-week DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales in the animation category in the Reiwa era (from May 13, 2019).
Mugen Train began screening in Japan on October 16. After 12 consecutive weeks at #1 in the box office in Japan, it 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 sold a total of 28,966,806 tickets for 40,016,942,050 yen (about US$367.6 million) in Japan as of May 23 — and became the first film ever to pass the 40 billion yen milestone. It has since earned 40,096,913,600 yen (about US$366.53 million) in Japan as of June 6. It is still playing in some Japanese theaters.
In 45 countries and territories worldwide, Mugen Train sold a total of 41.35 million tickets to earn the equivalent of 51.7 billion yen (about US$475 million) as of May 23. The film was the highest-earning film worldwide from 2020. It is the first non-Hollywood or non-American film to top the yearly box office worldwide since the beginning of cinema over a century ago.
The film is now the #2 highest-earning anime film ever at the U.S. box office.
