Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Becomes Top Grossing Japanese Film

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has set a new high bar. The first film in the Infinity Castle trilogy had earned an estimated 555 million dollars worldwide as of September 21, making it the highest grossing anime film ever and the highest grossing Japanese film ever on a global basis.

That total also placed it ninth among all films worldwide for 2025, having passed The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Captain America: Brave New World. In the United States it pulled in about 17.3 million dollars over its second weekend to stay at number one, becoming the first anime film to lead the US box office for two weekends in a row.

Its American run kept rewriting the record book. The film crossed 104 million dollars in the United States, the first anime film to top 100 million there, and its 70.6 million dollar opening was the largest ever for an anime film in the country, beating a mark the 1999 Pokemon: The First Movie had held for decades.

Japan tells a similar story. By its sixtieth day the film had sold more than 23 million tickets for around 33 billion yen, moving past Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away to become the second highest earning film in Japanese history. Only the franchise’s own Mugen Train, from 2020, still sits above it.

Behind the camera, Haruo Sotozaki directs at ufotable, the studio also credited with the screenplay, while singers Aimer and LiSA each provide theme songs for the film.

My take: Numbers this big can start to blur together, but passing Spirited Away in Japan really lands for me. It is a sign of how far anime has traveled, and how many people now want to see it on the largest screen they can find.