‘Demon Slayer’ is now Japan’s second-highest grossing film

An animated film based on the hit manga series “Demon Slayer” has taken 45 days to become the second-highest grossing film in history in Japan, distributors Aniplex Inc. and Toho Co. said on Monday.

The film grossed 27.510 million yen ($ 265 million) by attracting an audience of more than 20 million across Japan, beating out “Titanic,” the 1997 American hit movie about a romance aboard the ill-fated cruise ship of the same name. , which amassed ¥ 26.2 billion.

Directed by Haruo Sotozaki, “Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train,” the sequel to an anime television series broadcast in Japan last year, was already the first film in Japan to earn more than ¥ 10,000. million in 10 days of opening.

Director Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 animated film “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi” (“Spirited Away”), which grossed 30.8 billion yen, remains the highest grossing film in Japan at the moment.

The story of “Demon Slayer”, set in Japan about 100 years ago, features a teenage boy battling human-eating demons after his family is killed and his younger sister Nezuko turns into a demon.

It is based on a manga series by Koyoharu Gotoge that appeared in the Shukan Shonen Jump weekly magazine of leading Japanese publisher Shueisha Inc. between February 2016 and May this year.

The manga series, now a global hit, has been translated into 14 languages ​​and is available in 33 countries and regions, according to Shueisha.

Volumes 1 through 22 are on sale now, and the 23rd and final volume in the series will launch on Friday. The final issue will come with unpublished illustrations related to the manga.

The series dominated from first place to 22nd in the ranking of comic book sales in Japan in 2020, according to data released by Oricon Inc. on Sunday.

This was the first advance of its kind since Oricon, a provider of music and other information about pop culture, began compiling rankings for comic book sales in 2008.

Volume 18 of Demon Slayer ranked first, with estimated sales of around 4.393 million copies, followed by volume 19, with 4.243 million copies, and the first volume, with 3.703 million copies. Volume 21 of the series was ranked in 22nd place, with sales of some 2,655 million copies.

The film focuses on the efforts of the hero Tanjiro Kamado to save the lives of the passengers aboard the “Mugen Train”, named after the Japanese word for infinity, in which countless people have disappeared.

Its English dubbed and subtitled versions will hit North American theaters in early 2021, following a similar release in Taiwan on October 30, according to Aniplex.