Japan’s Highest-Grossing Movie Of All-Time Broke A Box Office Record In The U.S. This Weekend

For years, Spirited Away was the highest-grossing movie of all-time in Japan with a box office total of ¥31.68 billion, or $305 million in American dollars. No other film even came close to topping Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 masterpiece: Titanic was in third place with ¥26.20 billion, followed by Frozen and Your Name. But last December, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, a sequel to the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime series, overtook Spirited Away to become Japan’s Avatar, so to speak.

It’s now breaking box office records in the United States, too.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train made $21.1 million in the United States over the weekend, the biggest domestic debut for a foreign-language film ever. After three days, the anime is already halfway to Parasite‘s total gross in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Part of Mugen Train’s box office success can be attributed to the timing of its release. The film hit theaters just as COVID-19 theater restrictions were being lifted in Japan. It also faced little competition from Hollywood, which postponed much of its slate because U.S. theaters remained shuttered. There are reports of a theater in Japan showing Mugen Train more than 40 times per day.

Here’s the plot summary: “Tanjiro and the group have completed their rehabilitation training at the Butterfly Mansion, and they arrive at their next mission on the Mugen Train, where over forty people have disappeared in a very short span of time. Tanjiro and Nezuko, along with Zenitsu and Inosuke, join one of the most powerful swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps, Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku, to face the demon aboard the Mugen Train.” You can check up with the Demon Slayer series on Netflix.