Sony Crunchyroll‘s anime title Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle hit three week tracking yesterday and the outlook for the Sept. 12 theatrical release stands between a solid $20M-$29M.
The news comes at a time as Sony Pictures Animation/Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters Singalong is expected to post a surprise $15M+ opening, potentially unseating New Line’s third weekend of Weapons for No. 1.
Unaided awareness and first choice are strong on Infinity Castle with men under 25. If the pic hits anything north of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train‘s $21.2M opening from 2021, it’s arguably a record start for an anime movie stateside.
We already told you that after tickets went on sale a week ago for Infinity Castle, the top three chains were already reaping around $10M in presales, which in Fandango’s books, is an anime movie advance tickets sales record. The assumption is that most of that money is allocated for the fan screening on Sept. 9 at 7 PM local time in Imax on PLFs. Still that cash will roll up into the movie’s opening weekend.
Infinity Castle is opening after New Line’s post-Labor Day title Conjuring: Last Rites which is expected to do around $35M. The outlook for the September 2025 box office is bleak since there’s no mega-tentpole movie ala years past, i.e. It, Shang-Chi or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Currently, Infinity Castle is closing in on a foreign take of $200M, a majority of that coming from Japan.
In Infinity Castle, the Demon Slayer Corps are drawn into the Infinity Castle, where Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the Hashira face terrifying Upper Rank demons in a desperate fight as the final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji begins.
Infinity Castle will open against Focus Features’ Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Bleecker Street’s Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and the Lionsgate feature take of Stephen King’s The Long Walk.
Mugen Train currently holds the record as the highest-grossing Japanese anime movie of all time and the highest-grossing Japanese film at the worldwide B.O., minting over $500 million. The movie ranks as the second-highest grossing Japanese anime film in U.S. box office history with close to $50M.