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TOKYO (Kyodo) – An animated film based on the hit manga series “Demon Slayer” has become the highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history, its distributors said Monday, ending the reign of “Sen to Chihiro. no Kamikakushi “by Hayao Miyazaki. “(Spirited Away) 2001.
The film, a story about a teenager battling human-eating demons, has racked up 32.47 billion yen ($ 313 million) as of Sunday and attracted more than 24 million to theaters since its release on October 16. according to co-distributors Aniplex Inc. and Toho Co.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic limiting movie audiences, the film had grossed 32.12 billion yen as of Saturday, beating Oscar-winning director Miyazaki’s film, which grossed 31.68 billion yen in sales of ticket office.
Miyazaki’s film took 253 days to eclipse the 30 billion yen mark in box office sales, but “Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train” did so in just 59 days.
The Haruo Sotozaki-directed film and the sequel to an anime television series aired in Japan last year, became the first film in the country to earn more than 10 billion yen within 10 days of its release.
It surpassed “Titanic,” the 1997 American hit movie about a romance aboard the ill-fated cruise ship of the same name, as the second-highest-grossing movie ever in Japan on November 30.
In mid-December, when the movie “Demon Slayer” was on its way to breaking the “Spirited Away” record, Toho revised Miyazaki’s movie sales from 30.8 billion yen to 31.68 billion yen. for income from the film when it is screened again in the summer.
“Demon Slayer”, set in Japan about 100 years ago, is the story of a boy forced to fight demons after his family is killed and his younger sister Nezuko becomes one. It is based on Koyoharu Gotoge’s manga series that ran between 2016 and earlier 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 publisher Shueisha Inc.
The film focuses on the efforts of the hero Tanjiro Kamado, along with his sister and fellow demon hunters, to save the lives of the passengers aboard the “Mugen Train”, named for the Japanese word for infinity, in which they have countless people disappeared.
Its English dubbed and subtitled versions will hit North American theaters in early 2021, according to Aniplex. The film was screened in Taiwan on October 30 and earlier this month in Thailand.
The “Demon Slayer” boom has generated an economic hit of about 270 billion yen, according to an estimate by Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at the Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute, earlier this month.
In another boost to the “Demon Slayer” boom, the final volume of his manga series in book form went on sale earlier this month. Shueisha said 3.95 million copies were published as the first edition of volume 23, and the cumulative number of all volumes, including digital sales, exceeded 120 million copies.
A novel version of the story was this year’s best-seller in a ranking compiled by information provider Oricon Inc., while the series’ opening theme, sung by LiSA, remains a best-seller.
Companies have also capitalized on the popularity of “Demon Slayer” through toys and other products, while the series title was also chosen as one of Japan’s buzzwords for this year.
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