#Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Topples Spirited Away to Become the Highest-Grossing Anime Film Worldwide

Image via Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Official website

On Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train’s 192nd day at the Japanese box office, and the 3rd day of its North American run, Mugen Train finally overtook Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away to become the highest-grossing anime film worldwide at 47.55 billion yen (US$440.15 million). Thanks to the best opening weekend for an anime film this century in North America, as well as continuing its outstanding run in South Korea over the last week, the Ufotable-produced film was pushed to highs everyone thought unbelievable for a late-night anime series.

In Japan, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train had one of its smallest weeks since the run began over six months ago, only bringing in 80 million yen (US$740,171) for a total box office revenue of 39.78 billion yen (US$365.6 million). Mugen Train had been bringing in a steady 100 to 200 million yen over the past few months at the Japanese box office, but this decrease, and the fact most of Japan’s metropolitan areas have gone into a new State of Emergency, closing a majority of cinemas across the country, could mean it’ll be a while until Mugen Train hits the milestone of 40 billion yen (US$370 million), which would be a first for any film in Japan.

But that hasn’t stopped Demon Slayer: Mugen Train from bringing in money from overseas: As of April 25, Mugen Train has brought in $440.15 million (47.55 billion yen) at the worldwide box office. This means that in Japanese yen, Mugen Train has finally overtaken Spirited Away to be the highest-grossing anime film worldwide. Spirited Away is now number two at 47.03 billion yen (US$395,580,000), with Your Name at third with 41.43 billion yen (US$380,140,500). Unlike the dollar, the Japanese yen has remained steady over the last 20 years, only seeing inflation of 2.15% since Spirited Away first released, making a perfect indicator of which film is number one.

Getting to that number one spot is mostly thanks to the great opening weekend last weekend in North America, which saw Mugen Train bring in an estimated US$19.5 million, as well as another great week in South Korea, which saw the film stay at number two and bring in US$819,791 for a total of US$15,803,300 on the back of 1,822,478 tickets sold in the region. Worldwide, Demon Slayer has sold well over 30 million tickets (though some regions don’t publicly announce ticket sales, making it hard to track).  

Image via Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Official website

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train has only one more feasible record to break before the film has pushed itself to its limits: the highest-grossing film of 2020. Currently, Mugen Train sits at second on the chart, overtaking the Chinese film My People, My Homeland at third, and just under another Chinese film The Eight Hundred in first place. 

It is already the first time in box office history that a non-Hollywood film has been number one on the worldwide box office chart (mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic closing US cinemas, delaying most Hollywood films), Demon Slayer only needs US$21 million to become the highest-grossing film of 2020, a feat never held by a Japanese film ever, let alone an anime film based on a manga series that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump. 

From estimations in the North American box office and what’s left in the Japanese theatrical run (if the State of Emergency isn’t extended further), Demon Slayer should make that before the Japanese home release.

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train opened in Japanese cinemas on October 16 and had the best opening weekend in Japanese cinema history, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japanese theaters ever, the highest-grossing anime and Japanese film worldwide, and the second-highest-grossing film of 2020. You can read our review of the film here. In North America, Mugen Train made its stop in theaters on April 23 both dubbed and subbed formats, with a digital release of the film on June 22.

The Ufotable-produced anime film continues to adapt the manga series by Koyoharu Gotouge, which saw a TV anime series adaptation in 2019. The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba TV anime series streamed on Crunchyroll as it aired. The second season of the TV anime series, subtitled “Entertainment District arc”, will premiere sometime in 2021 on Japanese TV.

Sources: Oricon, KoreaFilm

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.