The ‘Demon Slayer’ Movie’s Unprecedented Success: A Box Office Underdog Story
The State Of Things
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting effect on the worldwide box office. 2019 broke records by having nine films surpass the $1 billion mark; as of now, 2020’s highest grosser hasn’t even made half that. The ill-fated Tenet release was perhaps the final nail in the coffin for theater chains in the United States, as it forced dozens of movies to either move straight-to-streaming or be postponed — sometimes indefinitely.
China has had it slightly better: it’s established itself as the year’s biggest theatrical market with hits like The Eight Hundred, My People, My Homeland, and Legend of Deification raking in more than $1 billion combined.
With other countries having scarcely any wide releases still scheduled for October, analysts assumed China’s continued dominance would remain the biggest box-office story heading into the holiday season.
But an underdog was beginning to emerge.
Building A Shonen Success
The manga series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba began its run in Weekly Shonen Jump (the manga magazine responsible for such hits as My Hero Academia and One Piece) in February 2016. It became a surprise hit, challenging even its long-running competitors in terms of readership, and an anime adaptation was officially greenlit in June 2018.
The anime adaptation worked wonders for Demon Slayer — it bolstered the popularity of the manga among Western audiences and created a bigger cultural footprint for the series in general. And, as many fans had predicted, it was officially announced with the airing of season one’s final episode that a film was in development that would continue its story.
With so many fans excited to see the likes of Tanjiro and Nezuko on the big screen, and the effect of a global pandemic leaving many others begging for a diversion, the stage was set.
Breaking The Box Office
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train was released in Japan on October 16. In its first three days, it made $43.8 million, breaking the record previously held by Frozen II (which managed $17.8 million back in November 2019). According to Bloomberg, more than 3% of Japan’s entire population saw the movie during its opening weekend.
While the box-office performance of a movie characterized by this type of breakout success story usually includes a sharp drop once the hype dies down, Mugen Train held tight during its second weekend, drawing in $29 million for a total gross now over $100 million. Estimates for the next few weekends are all over the place right now as no one can quite predict how long the film’s legs will last, but it’s worth noting that Mugen Train has accomplished exactly what Tenet was attempting to — luring moviegoers back to theaters with the promise of brilliant escapist spectacle.
