Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle has shattered box office expectations, achieving a milestone not seen in over two decades. The film debuted with an estimated $70 million during its opening weekend in the United States, dethroning Pokémon: The First Movie’s $31 million debut from 1999 as the biggest opening for any international film in U.S. history.
The accomplishment places Infinity Castle not only above its predecessor, Mugen Train, which earned $49.9 million across its entire U.S. run, but also ahead of Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron, which closed at $46.8 million domestically. Within just three days, Infinity Castle has become the second-highest-grossing anime film of all time in the U.S., and it is now on course to cross $100 million domestically—something no animated release has done so far in 2025.
Sony and Crunchyroll, along with Toho and Aniplex, have confirmed that the film is performing well overseas. While Japan remains the largest market with over $220 million in box office gross, international territories have contributed an additional $67 million, bringing the worldwide total to an estimated $472 million. A significant portion of this success comes from global IMAX screenings, which have generated $58.5 million.
According to analysts, the film’s success can be attributed to the growing popularity of Demon Slayer, which has gained a wider audience through streaming platforms like Netflix. The film’s trajectory has been compared to Sony’s Spider-Verse films, which also became mainstream hits after an initial period of success.
With its record-breaking debut, Infinity Castle has also set several additional benchmarks. It is the largest opening for any animated film released since Moana 2 nearly a year ago, the biggest-ever opening for an R-rated animated film, and Sony’s strongest debut since Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in June 2023. In fact, the $70 million opening surpasses the combined opening weekends of all previous Demon Slayer theatrical releases in the U.S., highlighting just how far the franchise has expanded in the past five years.
As the first part of a planned trilogy adapting the dramatic Infinity Castle arc from Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga, this release marks a pivotal moment for both the franchise and the anime industry at large. What began as a niche manga has now achieved historic box office feats, signaling that anime films are no longer outliers but major contenders in the global cinematic market.
