The list of top performers at this weekend’s box office was big of rereleases and legacyquels with one major exception. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie Infinity Castle, a follow-up to the fourth season of the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, had the biggest opening for any anime project ever in the United States, not adjusting for inflation, per The Hollywood Reporter. The movie opened with an estimated $70 million this weekend, putting it above the runner-up, The Conjuring: Last Rites, by nearly $44 million. Infinity Castle is distributed by Crunchyroll, which is owned by Sony, which also had the summer’s other big animated hit: KPop Demon Hunters.
The last movie in the franchise, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train opened amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and didn’t make it to the U.S. and Canada until April of 2021. That film ultimately grossed just shy of $50 million, and ranked before this weekend as the second-highest anime film ever released in the U.S., per Box Office Mojo. Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back made about $85 million in the U.S. when it opened in 1999, which Infinity Castle appears steadily on track to beat before long.
Elsewhere in the top ten, The Long Walk opened to an estimated $11.5 million, coming in behind The Conjuring: Last Rites and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Both Caught Stealing and The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Caught Stealing fell precipitously out of the top ten this week, from spots five and six last week, respectively. Meanwhile, three different rereleases—Toy Story, Hamilton, and The Sound Of Music—pulled in a few million, while Spinal Tap II: The End Continues managed to pull in under $1.7 million, averaging just $872 per screen. You can check out the full top ten below, courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie Infinity Castle
- The Conjuring: Last Rites
- Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
- The Long Walk
- Toy Story
- Weapons
- Hamilton
- Freakier Friday
- Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
- The Sound Of Music
