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Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Becomes Highest-Earning Anime Film in U.K. and Ireland

According to a press release, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle - Akaza Sairai, the first film in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle trilogy, earned £3.4m in its opening weekend, breaking the record for the highest earning anime film in the UK and Ireland. The press release says that the film opened across nearly 500 screens, with an average of £7,000 per screen.

The film opened in second place to the film Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which earned £4.3 million on its own first weekend.

As of Monday September 15, the film had sold a total of 23,042,671 tickets for 33,056,606,000 yen (about US$224 million) in Japan. 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). It has sold 55,004,375 tickets for 68,015,243,965 yen (about US$462 million) worldwide.

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.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle - Akaza Sairai is the fastest film in Japan to reach 30 billion yen (about US$203 million), reaching the milestone in 46 days. Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train held the previous record, reaching the milestone in 59 days.

The film opened in the UK on September 12, as well as in the United States and Canada. The film opened at #1 in the U.S., and earned US$70,611,098 in its opening weekend by selling 6,008,511 tickets. The film broke the 1999 anime film Pokémon: The First Movie's record for the biggest opening weekend for an anime film in the U.S. both unadjusted and adjusted for inflation.

The film opened in Japan on July 18. The film is playing on 443 screens (a franchise record) throughout Japan, including IMAX screenings. Outside Japan, Aniplex aims for the new film to play in over 150 countries and regions, which is wider than the franchise's previous world tour of over 145 countries and regions.

Source: Press release from The Multiple Agency