The latest film adaptation of the Demon Slayer manga franchise has become the first Japanese movie to earn more than 100 billion yen (USD 644 million) at the global box office, distributors Aniplex and Toho announced on Monday.
Titled “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinity Castle: Part 1,” the film depicts Tanjiro Kamado’s climactic battle to defeat powerful demons and restore his sister’s humanity. It is the first instalment of a planned trilogy.
Released internationally from August — including in North America and in China from last Friday — the film has drawn 89.17 million viewers worldwide, the distributors said.
In Japan, the movie currently ranks second in box-office revenue, just behind the earlier Demon Slayer film that became a cultural phenomenon during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has already surpassed Studio Ghibli’s classic “Spirited Away” (2001) in the domestic market.
Based on the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge and animated by studio Ufotable, the Demon Slayer franchise is widely praised for raising the bar in anime cinematography. The latest instalment is packed with vibrant visual effects and high-speed, acrobatic battles inside a surreal, endlessly shifting castle.
Unlike long-running Japanese hits such as One Piece, which spans more than 100 volumes, the Demon Slayer manga concluded with just 23 volumes—yet it has achieved unprecedented global impact.
Anime continues to dominate Japan’s entertainment industry, and its international influence is surging as well.
China’s animated fantasy “Ne Zha II” is currently the highest-grossing film of 2025, while Netflix’s most-watched movie ever is the animated title “KPop Demon Hunters.”
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