Channing Tatum with Natsuki Hanae, who voices Tanjiro Kamado in the Japanese original, at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ (Photo by Kayla Oaddams/FilmMagic)
FilmMagic
An anime about a teenager avenging the deaths of his family at the hands of hordes of carnivorous demons wouldn’t usually be the sort of film which would be met with unanimous praise from critics. However, dazzling animation extravaganza Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has managed to pull it off.
The animated adventure was produced by Japanese studio Ufotable and hit theaters in the United States this week to an almost perfect critics’ score of 97% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. You would have thought this remarkable feat would have given the movie wall-to-wall media coverage but in fact that’s far from the case.
The first film in a trilogy based on the “Infinity Castle” story arc of a manga comic book series, Demon Slayer is also a direct sequel to the fourth season of the Netflix anime series with the same name. The film picks up from the cliffhanger of the fourth season, where the teenage Tanjiro Kamado and his fellow Demon Slayer Corps members find themselves in the lair of the all-powerful demon master Muzan Kibutsuji.
Magic Mike star Channing Tatum is the only A Lister on the roster of the English dub so its appeal isn’t driven by star power. Instead, it’s the film’s striking art style and high stakes story that won over critics.
IndieWire had high praise for the presentation saying that it “approaches the pinnacle of what animation can achieve this decade.” Variety added that aside from “the sheer inventiveness of the movie’s made-up martial arts, that leaves the tragic elements, which can be disarmingly effective in giving audiences reason to feel invested in the battles.”
Originally released in Japan in July by Aniplex and Toho, it was distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing in select Asian countries the following month and has debuted in all other territories since the start of September. The film took the local box office by storm taking $37.4 million in its first three days giving it the biggest opening weekend of all time in Japanese cinema. It has gone on to earn $213.2 million there making it the highest-grossing film of 2025 in Japan and the third highest-grossing film in the country’s history.
Sony clearly has high hopes for the film as it debuted in 3,315 locations across the U.S. compared to 443 in Japan. So far, its instincts have paid off.
According to Variety, the movie grossed $33 million in the U.S. across Friday and preview screenings alone which is the biggest-ever opening day domestic haul for an anime film. It was more than three times higher than the previous $10.9 million high-mark set by Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in 2022 but it doesn’t stop there.
‘Demon Slayer’ follows in the wake of the success of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ ©2025 Netflix
NETFLIX
Demon Slayer also holds the accolade of having the biggest opening weekend ever for anime, surging past the $31 million record set by Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back in 1999 even though that movie debuted on a Wednesday meaning that it played for two full days before the traditional three-day period.
Even though Demon Slayer has only just launched in most major markets outside Asia, it has already become the fourth highest-grossing Japanese film worldwide with total takings of $316 million according to industry analyst Box Office Mojo. Conveniently, it comes on the back of the success of Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters which has a similar theme. That’s not the only thing the two have in common.
Despite being a critics’ darling, it appears that Demon Slayer has yet to become a mainstream sensation. This is revealed in data from Factiva, a search engine owned by Dow Jones which includes content from 33,000 news, data and information sources in 32 languages.
How ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ Matches Up To Its Rivals
Caroline Reid using Flourish
Factiva’s data shows that so far this year Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has been mentioned in just 863 articles which pales in comparison to the tally for more mainstream 2025 animated blockbusters. A massive 27,607 articles have mentioned Lilo & Stitch while How To Train Your Dragon has appeared in 8,317. True, both names are also included in the titles of other films but Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle gets its name from a comic book series so it too isn’t unique to the movie.
‘Demon Slayer’ has only a fraction of the media coverage of ‘Lilo & Stitch’ despite its popularity Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2025 Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DISNEY
Interestingly, there was a seven-fold spike in media coverage of Demon Slayer in July when the movie was released in Japan but so far in September it has only increased by 18.3% to 297 articles. It is only 58 higher than the tally for How To Train Your Dragon even though that movie was released three months ago.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle still has time on its side as it has only just been released internationally. However, it has a long way to go to catch up with the peak of 8,560 articles which mentioned Lilo & Stitch in June, the month after the movie was released. This isn’t likely to cause concern given that there hasn’t been a deluge of media coverage of KPop Demon Hunters but that didn’t stop it from becoming the most-watched Netflix movie of all time. If Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle continues to break records in the same way the media will have no choice but to give it the attention it deserves.
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