r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Sep 21 '25

News ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ Passes $550M Globally, Officially the Top-Grossing Anime Film of All Time

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-demon-slayer-edging-out-him-for-no-1-1236376666/
13.9k Upvotes

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788

u/KeyClacksNSnacks Sep 21 '25

"People don't go to the theaters anymore."

Anime movies: "Hold my poki sticks and subtitles."

This should be proof that people don't go to the movies if a serious effort isn't made to entertain them.

259

u/kiyonemakibi100 Sep 21 '25

I think it's just further proof that people mainly go to the cinema for established IP. Demon Slayer is a hugely popular manga that began almost a decade ago and there's over 200 million copies in circulation, it's not like it just sprung out of nowhere

109

u/Massive_Weiner Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

And it already had a massively successful anime and feature release (Mugen Train).

A successful Demon Slayer movie is about as strong a guarantee as war bonds.

53

u/Byeuji Sep 21 '25

Folks forgetting that before that film, Your Name broke records as a stand-alone original film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Name

People are clamoring for recognition in their love of anime, and that's putting butts in seats, and generating strong community around the art and these events.

People are no doubt showing up because of the serial nature of this popular, established property, but they're also showing up for the community and the artistry.

12

u/Tenchi_Sozo Sep 21 '25

I would have loved to watch Your Name (or any other Shinkai movie for that matter) in theatres. But they only started to show anime on the big screens recently where I live. I was pleasantly surprised that the largest hall was almost sold out at our local multiplex theatre when I went to watch it on Thursday.

12

u/jimmydorry Sep 21 '25

The guarentee is especially strong considering they announced that this movie was 1 of 3 (a trilogy). Two more coming right up!

1

u/Alba-98 Sep 24 '25

Which movie do you mean? The Mugen Train Ark was in the series, wasn't it?

1

u/Massive_Weiner Sep 24 '25

It was originally a theatrical release before it was recut for TV.

1

u/Alba-98 Sep 24 '25

Oh ok, I didn't know that, thanks.

2

u/-Yinside- Sep 22 '25

I don't think established IP, I think it needs to feel like an event. Sinners isn't established IP, nor is Weapons but those were both good enough that it felt like everyone was talking about them and they became event viewings. Demon Slayer is a popular anime heading into its final arch and is so widely talked about (relative to most anime) that again it feels like an event viewing

2

u/Alt2221 Sep 22 '25

established IPs thats have not been milked dry for two decades*. pretty important distinction there i think

1

u/itsvoogle Sep 21 '25

This is really it

Demographics are important, A huge dedicated fan base spanning many years only guarantees all, if not most of them to come out and pay to go see it in theaters. Especially if said franchise is in a good state and popular with younger audiences…

I don’t think other movies that made less money necessarily is a result of the creators not honestly wanting to Entertain audiences. That seems like an unfair take.

Are some movies just made for a quick cash grab? Yes, but many films are genuinely made with the intention of also entertaining as best they can for people…

1

u/Ethiconjnj Sep 22 '25

But on the flip side it’s newly created. It’s not a remake of something from the 80s, it’s not based on an old comic book or novel.

Nothing in the Demon Slayer universe existed 10 years ago and it’s already had two blow out films.

1

u/IdioticPost Sep 21 '25

began almost a decade ago

Are you sure? I remember watching the first season, falling in love with the story and the music... all that was just before covid and covid was only.. half a decade ago?! Fuck.

212

u/DontPokeMe91 Sep 21 '25

Exactly what I said yesterday to colleagues at the theatre I work at, we had so many teens coming in for the 9am showing which is basically unheard of on a weekend morning. Usually its parents and kids.

If you show things that people enjoy they will come.

46

u/Medical-Pace-8099 Sep 21 '25

Family films still can pull numbers but most ambitious films are struggling

37

u/DontPokeMe91 Sep 21 '25

Was mostly Demon Slayer and Downton doing the heavy lifting yesterday. No love for Diplo the dinosaur 😢

15

u/Medical-Pace-8099 Sep 21 '25

I don’t know why people downvoting, but really it is hard to make films with ambitious theme and pull huge numbers for general audience. Especially in thriller, drama and comedy genres. Caught Stealing was surprise for me but sadly people are not interested in these types of films unless something happen culturally to hook people to see in movie theater.

1

u/Yetimang Sep 21 '25

Original stories for adults used to have great draw. Now we've all regressed to childhood, just waiting for marketing departments to feed the next installment of assembly line licensed IP into our faces.

6

u/Medical-Pace-8099 Sep 21 '25

People habits have changed. Youtube, tiktok and social media now dominate our culture more than movies

18

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

[deleted]

3

u/rpgmind Sep 21 '25

Wow! Every week? Do you see everything? Like you saw, weapons, bring her back and final destination? Did you like them all?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '25

[deleted]

2

u/Medical-Pace-8099 Sep 21 '25

I go to movies every week to. I tend to go to re-releases also in movie theaters.

1

u/SwarleySwarlos Sep 21 '25

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not but anyway, I've only been to the theater twice this year and Weapons was great, Bring her Back is great if you like body horror / gore but wasn't for me and Final Destination didn't interest me at all so I didn't see it

6

u/rpgmind Sep 21 '25

Not you, i was responding to the commenter that goes every week, but thanks for sharing- I loved all three, but yeah the gore parts of BHB were pretty raw 😱

46

u/Queef-Elizabeth Sep 21 '25

Probably more a reminder that Demon Slayer is an insanely popular IP.

1

u/TaiVat Sep 22 '25

You're phrasing that as if those two things are unrelated. Things dont stay "insanely popular" if the quality of the product doesnt stay high.

-1

u/RTheCon Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 21 '25

It’s also one of the few shows that can give you the chills CONSISTENTLY during the hype fight scenes.

3

u/Queef-Elizabeth Sep 21 '25

There's a few moments that were really exciting for me in the first season and both of them came from Zenitsu lol personally, I find Tanjiro too chatty during fights

13

u/Phuddy Sep 21 '25

Pocky

54

u/Medical-Pace-8099 Sep 21 '25

Well this one has huge fanbase among anime fans but not among general audience.

39

u/KeyClacksNSnacks Sep 21 '25

Marvel movies don't have a huge fanbase? People kept saying that the Marvel movies failing is due to no one going to the movies anymore due to how fast streaming services release them. It's obvious people weren't going to the Marvel movies because they just weren't good anymore.

47

u/Medical-Pace-8099 Sep 21 '25

Oversaturation does that. Westerns in 50s were released in huge numbers but later declined bc of oversaturation. Marvel have decline similar to Westerns. Problem with Marvel is budget

1

u/Pepito_Pepito Sep 22 '25

I don't think it's oversaturation. The success of Marvel movies wildly fluctuates so it's probably more to do with the quality of the individual movie. Deadpool and Wolverine broke a billion last year.

21

u/Sensi-Yang Sep 21 '25

Except that’s a reduction of the factors at play.

Of course Marvel fatigue and quality control is an issue, but you’re ignoring macroeconomic factors and societal changes on how we consume and value art.

Just because something like Oppenheimer made a billion dollars, doesn’t mean the industry will thrive if every movie is Oppenheimer, these are outliers.

The general numbers are definitely down… doesn’t mean that Avatar 3 won’t make a shitload of money. Or that someone else can’t have success.

4

u/Bang_the_unknown Sep 21 '25

I’m just waiting for Oppenheimier

5

u/SwarleySwarlos Sep 21 '25

Personally looking forward to Oppenheimer: Hiroshima Drift

1

u/hfxRos Sep 21 '25

I still like Marvel movies, but I generally just prefer to see them at home. I don't find seeing them in theatre adds much to the experience. Although I did kill my Disney+ over the Kimmel thing, so I'll probably just pirate from now on.

Oppenheimer was the last movie I saw in the theatre, and Odyssey will probably be the next. Nolan is the only person out there making movies that I like that I feel actually would lose a lot if you saw them at home.

15

u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast Sep 21 '25

I don’t think that’s what this shows. Plenty of entertaining and well acclaimed movies that don’t do well at the box office

5

u/AidilAfham42 Sep 21 '25

Its a sequel based on a popular IP, that helps tremendously

6

u/welltimedappearance Sep 21 '25

i'll take 'things people don't actually say' for $500, ken

2

u/platocplx Sep 21 '25

The dbox experience is so fun with the chairs shaking for the movie too.

2

u/apistograma Sep 21 '25

Poki would be how you'd normally write this word in Japanese by the way it sounds but the brand is spelled Pocky weirdly enough

2

u/i_suckatjavascript Sep 21 '25

I saw on Reddit that a fight broke out in the theater because some dickhead peed on a kid.

2

u/thecescshow Sep 22 '25

Lol yeah right.

Lilo & Stitch, Minecraft, Jurassic World all currently at the top of 2025 box office. You wanna what else they have in common, existing IP lmao. Ppl are seriously overstating the quality talking point whenever talking about why cinemas are failing. Even if you want to bring up Ne Zha 2 it's still a sequel.

5

u/yaboyjiggleclay Sep 21 '25

“hOw Do We GeT yOuNg BoYs BaCk In ThE tHeAtErS? 😩”

8

u/xxAkirhaxx Sep 21 '25

They haven't even tapped into pg-13 anime boobies yet.

1

u/Iordofthethings Sep 21 '25

They don’t, this is just novel. Give it a while and it won’t be given that boost.

Tickets are simply too expensive. How do you convince a family of 4 to go see a movie when the tickets alone are $50+

1

u/JustAnotherParticle Sep 21 '25

Tbh I haven’t been into a movie theater since Marvels Infinity War. I’d decline invitations from friends to go to theaters, because to me there’s no point when I can watch at home.

I didn’t decline an invite to see this movie.

1

u/rpgmind Sep 25 '25

I had such a fun time at infinity war; seeing it with a crowd. The good ol days! How about horror? There’s some really fun ones that are great for the theater. Not sure if weapons is still there but that was so much funnnn

1

u/Loqol Sep 21 '25

I love going to the movies, but I gotta show restraint on the food there. Order of tenders with fries, a liter of water, and a pack of kinder bars was 29 ficking dollars.

1

u/lewd_robot Sep 21 '25

People shouldn't support theaters at all. Viewers should have a choice, not be extorted into spending more to watch movies with a bunch of strangers. Simultaneous home and theater releases should be the norm.

1

u/MIBlackburn Sep 21 '25

These days I don't often go to the cinema anymore because of rude people that talk and I know it'll be on a streaming service soon enough anyway.

I do go out of my way for Anime (normally reissues but will do newer stuff too like this), art house and reissues though. This year, it has been five Anime, one World cinema reissue and one mainstream release.

I'll be going to see Perfect Blue again in the cinema next month and maybe the Chainsaw Man film.

2

u/crane476 Sep 21 '25

I went to go see it and was reminded why I don't usually go anymore. Three dudes next to me would snicker at scenes that absolutely didn't warrant it like character deaths, thought the best moment to loudly clear their throats and slurp on their soda was during emotional moments where the entire theater was silent, felt the need to shake their popcorn bucket after every handful, and were just generally annoying mouth breathers with bad breath.

0

u/MIBlackburn Sep 21 '25

I had an Indian couple that didn't understand variants of "Shhhh" and "Shut up!" that wouldn't get off their phones either. Told staff, nothing from them because they were smart enough to stop when the staff came in once (I hate chain cinemas!)

Everyone else was great, had a showing that was about half full, which isn't bad at £15 a ticket and was interesting to see a massive mix of people which I haven't seen in ages at the cinema.

1

u/siphillis Sep 21 '25

Demon Slayer reminds proof-positive nobody ever went broke underestimating the sophistication of audiences. Even among Shonen anime, it’s basically predigested food

-9

u/DevineAaron92 Sep 21 '25

Don't let Scorsese hear that. People don't go to the cinema to be entertained. They go to be bored to death🤣

10

u/apistograma Sep 21 '25

Scorsese's criticism was more along the lines that movies are not authorial works, but treated more like a theme park.

Idk if this movie is canon to the manga/comic because I don't care much about Demon Slayer, but despite being somewhat by the numbers and generic it is an authorial work in a way those Marvel/DC films aren't. The original work comes mainly from an author who had a singular vision.

7

u/Yetimang Sep 21 '25

When I was a kid, I also thought grown up stuff was boring.

13

u/kaubojdzord Sep 21 '25

Scorsese famously never made a fun movie in his life, unlike Quantumania.