'Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen' Becomes Highest-Grossing Film in Japanese Box Office History

The Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Mugen Train) film surpassed Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) in total Japanese box office revenue this weekend to become the highest-grossing film in the country's history. It grossed roughly 1.312 billion yen (approx. US$12.67 million) last week—a week that included its MX4D and 4DX premieres on December 26—for a cumulative total exceeding 32.47 billion yen (approx. US$313.5 million) from over 24 million tickets sold.

The film premiered on October 16 and had a historic start to its theatrical run, setting a box office record in Japan for a film's first ten days, and totalling 23.35 billion yen (approx. US$225.4 million) in revenue through its first 30 days. The total made it the fifth-highest grossing film ever in Japan as of November 16, and by November 30 it trailed only Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi among Japan's highest-grossing films.

Oricon reported on December 14 that it exceeded 30 billion yen (approx. US$289.6 million) in box office revenue following showings the previous week, joining Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi as the only films to do so in Japan. The next day, distributor Toho revealed an additional 880 million yen (approx. US$8.5 million) in sales for the latter linked to screenings held in 2020, pushing its total to 31.68 billion yen (approx. US$305.9 million) and briefly delaying Kimetsu no Yaiba's bid for the top spot.

ufotable's Kimetsu no Yaiba film adapts Mugen Ressha-hen (Infinity Train arc) from Koyoharu Gotouge's supernatural action manga. The film continues the story from the television anime adaptation that aired for two cours from April to September in 2019. Serialization of the manga concluded in May after a four-year run in Weekly Shounen Jump, and the 23rd and final compiled volume shipped on December 4. The manga has a cumulative 120 million copies of its volumes in circulation.

The franchise is being considered a social phenomenon in Japan, and Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc. estimated that its economic impact had exceeded 270 billion yen (approx. US$2.606 billion) as of December 5. Cinema Cafe analyzed tweets related to Kimetsu no Yaiba dating back to 2018, and found that the more than 15 million tweets in 2020 were not only 47 times the figure for 2018, but also more than double the cumulative total for the Haikyuu!!, Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia), Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland) series in 2020. The number of Kimetsu no Yaiba tweets in the month following the film's release was roughly 3.7 times the number sent in the month prior, and the total for the two months exceeded the number sent in all of 2019.

Source: Oricon News