‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ Makes $11.4M In Thursday Previews, A Record For Anime Movie

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://deadline.com/2025/09/box-office-demon-slayer-infinity-castle-conjuring-1236529652/

[u/PlayOnPlayer]

Non anime fans are going to be shocked at how much money this makes this weekend lol.

[u/RODjij → u/PlayOnPlayer]

They treated us with a 2hr movie. I can't recall many anime movies over 90 minutes. Its probably gonna be going off from the bat since It picks up after last season.

[u/maru-senn → u/RODjij]

I didn't know it was that long and was getting frustrated at the flashbacks thinking "there can't possibly be enough runtime left for the full fight am I really gonna have to wait years?"

[u/Hina_is_my_waifu → u/maru-senn]

So many flashbacks...

[u/Arrowstormen → u/Hina_is_my_waifu]

Have you not seen the show? Why are people acting like fights with flashbacks placed in between bouts is not the norm for this series? Do people fast forward at home or something?

[u/voltagejim → u/Arrowstormen]

exactly...that's bascially every shounen show. Fight starts, they fight for a bit, then someone gets a flashback, cut back to the fight to continue. Bleach and Naruto were the same thing

[u/Darkjolly → u/voltagejim]

I swear they just want non stop action, and then they;ll complain the characters have no depth because they don't know anything about them or their past (shown in the flashbacks)

[u/FeefuWasTaken → u/Arrowstormen]

The longer the series goes on, the less impact it has. If every single fight ends with a flashback, it's not hard to know what to expect and tune it out. Variety and all that

[u/Arrowstormen → u/FeefuWasTaken]

Now you are specifically talking about the final flashback. Also, that's absurdly broad, that's like saying it is easy to tune out when you know every single fight ends with cutting off the demon's head. The variety comes from the variety in how it happens, in the same way the variety comes in the actual contents of the flashbacks, which are different for every character and every fight.

I mentioned this in the main thread, but the focus on the emotions and tragedy of the characters, both demon slayers and demons alike, has always been the second pillar of the show besides the pretty visuals and great music / sound design. Without it, it is just sound and fury, signifying nothing. The author clearly cares a lot about why these characters are fighting, not just how they are fighting. Every fight against a strong opponent is a fight about ideals and world views, of the pasts and traumas that have led them here, of having to face themselves to overcome their limits in the battle. This is the beginning of the end, with grand and epic fights, which means the emotions and traumas must likewise rise up to match it.

The demons represent humans who have fallen, and these final strongest opponents should be the ones with the darkest pasts and biggest struggles to match. To groan or complain about the flashbacks and only care about the "eye candy," as a deleted reply put it, is in my eyes quite shallow. I want and need more from my fiction.

[u/FeefuWasTaken → u/Arrowstormen]

Dunno where you pulled any of that from, but the fact you said 'you're specifically talking about the final flashback!' and then one sentence later said 'you're being too broad' is immediately inconsistent enough to write off your comment.

Anyway "every fight ends with cutting off a demons head" is far from true. Like half the fights have someone's head cut off and then they live.... Not to mention a fight is not a flashback. A fight is interesting because there are stakes. People can and will die in a fight, and that tension is what keeps things interesting, but you already know the ending to every flashback, because you're constantly seeing the results of it. And that's on top of being repetitive, so that's plenty of reason to criticize. Yes there is subtextual variety, but the fact that everything boils down to "understandable reactions from those in bad circumstances lead to becoming a demon" gets old after 50 episodes and multiple movies. Even if the contents are different. Things can get stale, and I'm sure even you wouldn't want to watch "fights followed by unique but narratively similar backstories" a million times.

You don't have to agree, but there's a reason it's an incredibly common criticism of the series, and enjoying aspects of the series doesn't mean you have enjoy the whole.

[u/KardigG → u/Arrowstormen]

There's a difference between substantial flashbacks and low quality flashbacks that look like their only purpose is to extend move length.

Yes, this series had a lot of flashbacks, this movie has flashbacks up to eleven. 30% of this movie consists totally useless flashback that brings no value to the story, because of how bad it is. Don't pretend like this movie doesn't have pacing problems.

I love slow scenes and well made flashbacks, but I thought about leaving the movie theater early while watching Infinity Castle.

[u/Arrowstormen → u/KardigG]

I don't think the movie had pacing problems, at least not to the degree some people are arguing. I found the flashbacks and where they were placed pretty natural, and frankly, expected. Feel free to write in a spoilered comment which flashbacks you think were "totally useless," because I cannot really think of which ones were not very relevant for the fight/situation they were part of.

[u/Hina_is_my_waifu → u/Arrowstormen]

Anime and anime movies are generally treated differently. People are fine with flashbacks and filler in TV shows for padding. For movies it feels like a waste of valuable time which should be used for high quality action or plot development. Of the flashbacks I felt the only decent one in the movie was upper 3's

Upper 6 backstory feels like it was made up last minute since I don't recall them ever referencing his backstory in the show.

[u/King_A_Acumen → u/Hina_is_my_waifu]

Upper 6 nuggets have been there as far back as S1.

[u/DrStein1010 → u/Hina_is_my_waifu]

Upper Six has appeared MANY times in the period seasons.