Culture ‘Infinity Castle’ Tops the Box Office, Revealing Changing Tastes - “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,” an anime film from Sony Pictures, arrives to a surprisingly strong $70 million in domestic ticket sales.

“Infinity Castle” gave Hollywood its biggest opening of the year for an animated movie, easily passing entries from Pixar and DreamWorks.Credit...Sony Pictures Entertainment

Younger audiences are sending a message to Hollywood: Our tastes in movies are changing.

Over the weekend, an anime film called “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle,” filmed in Japanese and released in North American theaters in subtitled and English-dubbed versions, was a runaway No. 1 at the box office. The movie, about demon exterminators battling inside a supernatural fortress, sold roughly $70 million in tickets in the United States and Canada from Thursday night through Sunday — about 55 percent more than analysts had predicted before its release.

“Young audiences are ready for something fresh and exciting,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers.

“Infinity Castle,” which received strong reviews, set a record for the biggest opening weekend in North America for an anime movie. The previous record-holder was “Pokémon: The First Movie — Mewtwo Strikes Back,” which collected $31 million in 1999, or about $61 million after adjusting for inflation.

“Infinity Castle” also gave Hollywood its biggest opening for any animated movie so far this year, easily surpassing DreamWorks Animation’s “Dog Man,” which took in $36 million over its first few days in theaters in January, and Pixar’s “Elio,” which bombed with a $21 million opening weekend.

The R-rated “Infinity Castle” cost an estimated $20 million to make and came from Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service and studio owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Overseas, where it has been in release since July, “Infinity Castle” has taken in an additional $375 million-plus, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data.

The colossal turnout for “Infinity Castle” prompted double-takes in Hollywood, which has been struggling to adapt to changing generational interests. Multiplexes in the United States and Canada had their worst summer since 1981, after adjusting for inflation and excluding the Covid pandemic years, when many theaters were closed for long periods.

The movie establishment was also caught by surprise in June, when another anime movie, “KPop Demon Hunters,” became a megahit on Netflix. Interest in that movie was so strong that Netflix, which typically eschews theatrical releases, distributed a singalong version in theaters in August.
“KPop Demon Hunters Singalong” generated roughly $20 million in opening-weekend ticket sales, an astounding sum for a movie that had been widely available on Netflix for months.

“Seeing KPop culture and anime rise among mainstream movie audiences with this magnitude is significant,” Mr. Gross said. “It’s still new but it looks very real.”

​

Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal.

 

[deleuzeon]

People are sick of lib shit, women shit, gay shit, and black shit. Sick of it all. It's that simple.

 

[regalterry]

Sick of it all

On the topic of being sick of it all, trannies are once again saying the quiet part out loud:

 

[TroonsDid911]

What is with people taking their kids to see this movie? Ive never watched the anime but I think I saw one scene on youtube and it was typical R rated anime violence, gory and bloody. Obviously less damaging to a child them tranny shit but still not all kids should be exposed to that level of graphic violence at a young age.

Also Im not surprised the movie is #1. $70 million is impressive but look at the other movies in that line up. All trash I haven't even heard of. Last two good movies I remember even caring about in theatres were The Naked Gun remake and Dune.

Now lets just hope Hollywood goes bankrupt trying to buy or finance shonen-slop and infect it with Jew AIDS. Leave Solo Levelling alone.

 

[Local FloRida-man]

What is with people taking their kids to see this movie? Ive never watched the anime but I think I saw one scene on youtube and it was typical R rated anime violence, gory and bloody. Obviously less damaging to a child them tranny shit but still not all kids should be exposed to that level of graphic violence at a young age.

Me and my bros were watching Goku take a special beam cannon through the gut and frieza get cut in half on toonami when we were 8-9 years old. The kids will be fine. Future kiwis in the making if anything.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

not all kids should be exposed to that level of graphic violence at a young age.

if you don't show kids Fist of the North Star they turn out gay

 

[Scale Smerch]

Havent seen the movie but im curious what the production values are like. If comparable to the series this number makes more sense since the show is actually shockingly cheap-looking at times. Pretty much anytime characters are walking along rice fields or through trees I get RWBY vibes.

Quite high. Anime movies in general receive better treatment given the runtime, but also because of their theatrical releases; TV releases are where at lot of corners are cut, albeit Demon Slayer's popularity has seen it well-endowed with production resources over the years. The Japs do not mess around when it comes to their shounen blockbuster hits.

 

[Thiletonomics]

You can thank the Coof for the explosion of Anime in the West as well as Western entertainment taking it up the ass for DIE points. That said, this is one of the reasons why you have the WEF doing what they can to muscle into Japan so they can squash entertainment that does not line up with their NWO garbage. Hence the flooding of browns there.

And there's also the payment processor fuckery that's seemingly being targetted at Japan too, as well as the recent ramp-ups in piracy site take downs. It's basically a slow frog boiling version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution at work.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

And there's also the payment processor fuckery that's seemingly being targetted at Japan too.

The hilarious part is that the payment processor fuckery is definitely accelerating the noticing. Many a weeb is finding Henry Ford's quote of "a group of Jews" to be quite relatable. (Especially when you remember Dodge vs Ford being the primary reason why so many corporations have gone to utter shit)

Of course, this is exactly why they're aggressively getting Netflix to be the pusher of Anime here in the West. So people can eventually get used to Netflix being an anime publisher and what they intend is once they start pushing their woke propaganda using Nipponese studios, people will be forced to consider it as anime. This is where gatekeeping becomes important once more.

Also, this is not the first time Japanese animation was used to push for some bizarre and culty purposes. Behold the anime made for Aum Shinryo. AKA the guy whose group was responsible for the Sarin Gas attack in Japan in the 90s.

This is but one of many. So the eventual Netflix 'Fake Anime' that will feature a butt-ugly crippled trans nigger isn't going to be groundbreaking. Just a sad reminder that if you have money, you can make people do the dumbest shit.

 

[regalterry]

It's basically a slow frog boiling version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution at work.

Not that slow anymore, the first sightings in the open of the Nip version of a Karen have been spotted - not only is she censoring anime she is working on as a scriptwriter, calling fanservice "noise", but she's also trying to turn her kid into a tranny.

 

[Troutsmacked]

An anime film having a $70 million opening in the US is unheard of, and kind of insane. But not really a bad thing considering the pure absolute garbage Hollywood has been shitting out for years.

 

[cactus]

On the topic of being sick of it all, trannies are once again saying the quiet part out loud:

Ver archivo adjunto 7924750Ver archivo adjunto 7924751

These ghouls have no joy in their lives and feel that the phrase "misery loves company" is a life's philosophy. Of course, I expect no less from someone with a Kyubey profile pic, he's something of a villain.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Quite high. Anime movies in general receive better treatment given the runtime, but also because of their theatrical releases; TV releases are where at lot of corners are cut, albeit Demon Slayer's popularity has seen it well-endowed with production resources over the years. The Japs do not mess around when it comes to their shounen blockbuster hits.

yeah most of the time Franchise The Movie is a side story of no gravity to the greater work, the draw is "imagine if your favorite anime was actually ANIMATED!"

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

On the topic of being sick of it all, trannies are once again saying the quiet part out loud:

That thing needs a phonebook check.

First appeared here in July 2021:
https://kiwifarms.st/threads/kaylyn-saucedo-kaylyn-dicksion-marzgurl.57152/post-9393039
https://kiwifarms.st/threads/weeb-w...istandwithvic-vickicksback.53670/post-9569906

 

[SITHRAK!]

scalped and chew especially

Scalped actually came back super strong, and was surprisingly sympathetic to the main character and his motivations given that the writer is a massive shitlib. Not to mention it absolutely did not go down the ‘noble savage’ route, showing crime, poverty, drugs, corruption, violence and welfare dependence in all their squalid glory on an Indian rez.

They actually filmed a pilot to make it into a show a la Breaking Bad but it never got picked up and I’m pretty sure its honesty about chug dysfunction was a big part of that. Dark Winds is a poor substitute (True Detective Lite on the Rez).

100 Bullets I regard as one of the greatest works of literary noir of all time. Given that its main protagonist is a Latina woman and a bunch of the ‘heads of family’ are female I’m surprised it hasn’t been picked up for a TV series. At the same time, looking at the TV adaptation fucking abortion that is ‘The Boys’ show, I’m glad it hasn’t been. Half the minutemen would be gay brown women or transgenders and the Families would be shown to be Pure Evil from the start rather than people slowly succumbing to the corruption of power.

If I ever win ~150 million in the lottery I am financing a 100 Bullets TV show, 97% faithful to the books, to be directed by Chis ‘X-Files’ Carter. I personally think it would be as big as Game of Thrones without the sharp drop-off in quality when the story runs out and the incompetent nepo children have to scramble to make shit up on the fly.

if you don't show kids Fist of the North Star they turn out gay

I grew up without TV and one of my first exposures to the medium was watching Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ and De Palma’s ‘Dressed To Kill’ on VHS at a friend’s house when I was eight years old. I now have an innate dislike of shapeshifters and trannies, who’d have thought it?

 

[Hokuriku]

On the topic of being sick of it all, trannies are once again saying the quiet part out loud:

The beautiful irony is that people don't even have to do anything about it; they're actively working to dismantle their own greatest benefactor.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

CNN: ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ breaks another record, tops domestic box office for second weekend (archive) (lite)

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN
Sun September 21, 2025

Hollywood has long viewed anime as a modest but steady genre at the domestic box office. But the unexpected success of “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” has forced the industry to rethink the potential of Japanese animation to draw big audiences to theaters.

“Infinity Castle,” distributed by Sony-owned Crunchyroll, fell 76% from its opening weekend, but still finished No. 1 at the box office, raking in $17.3 million Friday through Sunday and bringing its total earnings to $104.73 million after nine days in US theaters.

An anime film vastly outperforming expectations has been a long time coming. There have been more than 100 anime movies released since 2000, yet none have reached $50 million at the domestic box office. A poll released in January 2024 from Vox Media and Polygon showed that 42% of Gen Z say they watch anime weekly.

In the case of “Infinity Castle,” it has helped that the latest installment from the popular “Demon Slayer” franchise has drawn acclaim from critics, receiving a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69 rating on Metacritic.

“I think studio heads and movie theaters should be very happy that, if this becomes a trend rather than an anomaly, it will add another category of film to the quiver of potential content to put on the big screen,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

The sustained attention “Infinity Castle” has received from Gen Z and Gen Alpha has been a key driver for not just the movie but for the anime genre, and provided Sony and Crunchyroll with the surprise hit of September.

Dergarabedian said it’s “somewhat unprecedented” for an international anime movie to perform so well domestically.

Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of analytics firm Box Office Theory, said the movie’s buzz coming from younger moviegoers “can be a double-edged sword” because the interest can die off quickly or it can gain momentum by adding new audiences, reminiscent of the expectation-shattering run that Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” had this year when it pulled in $162.75 million in its opening weekend, and finished with $424 million.

Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

The record-breaking opening weekend of “Infinity Castle” may have broadened the realm of anime to US moviegoers who otherwise wouldn’t have considered watching a “Demon Slayer” movie, said Robbins.

“That can really inspire people to go and check out something that they might not have heard of otherwise,” Robbins said, adding that the movie brought out “virtually all corners of the anime world,” including viewers with a passing interest.

On Friday, “Infinity Castle” became the highest-earning anime movie domestically, surpassing another record previously held by Warner Bros. 1999 hit, “Pokémon: The First Movie — Mewtwo Strikes Back” ($85 million).

Box office lags behind ‘Infinity Castle’​

While “Infinity Castle” topped the weekend box office, the No. 2 movie was Universal Pictures’ and Monkeypaw Productions’ “Him,” which opened to $13.5 million, falling short of expectations.

David A. Gross, who writes industry newsletter FranchiseRe, said that Jordan Peele, who is one of the producers of “Him,” is “primarily responsible” for its success despite poor critic ratings. “Him” has a 29% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Original films that opened this weekend had a tougher time because if you don’t have the greatest reviews and you have very little brand recognition … it makes it a little tougher,” Dergarabedian said.

Also in theaters this weekend was Warner Bros.’ “Conjuring: The Last Rite” ($12.95 million), which came in third overall.

Lionsgate’s “The Long Walk” and Focus Features’ “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” tied for fourth place with $6.3 million each.

The weekend box office finished at around $75 million Friday through Sunday, compared with last year’s roughly $83 million, according to Dergarabedian. That leaves the overall box office up just 4.38% since January, compared with the same time last year, according to Comscore data.

“Last weekend was unusually big because ‘Demon Slayer’ opened to over $70 million,” Dergarabedian said, adding that “we would have hoped for more (this weekend),” but “that’s just the ups and downs of the box office.”

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

woke

I don't get the idea of woke with Demon Slayer, it might be one of the more based anime in recent years.
* Black and White morality.
* Good guys are loyal to a benevolent commander, will die for him.
* Main villain that changes gender and grooms children to become demon.
* Seemingly no faggots.
* Multiple couples with children by the anime's end.
* Massive importance on family, tradition and bloodline.

 

[Rogue AI]

So the eventual Netflix 'Fake Anime' that will feature a butt-ugly crippled trans nigger isn't going to be groundbreaking.

Didn't they try to do a mecha anime starring Jaden Smith that was a barely disguised Toblerone advertisement or was that a fever dream?

 

[Disgruntled Pupper]

I watched TV for the first time in a long time and saw an advert for the new Tron movie. The computer people enter the real world to take it over and a police car gets cut in half by the red trail from one of the Tron bikes.

Yeah, I'd watch the anime shit over that any day.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

Didn't they try to do a mecha anime starring Jaden Smith that was a barely disguised Toblerone advertisement or was that a fever dream?

That and High Guardian Spice.

I don't get the idea of woke with Demon Slayer, it might be one of the more based anime in recent years.
* Black and White morality.
* Good guys are loyal to a benevolent commander, will die for him.
* Main villain that changes gender and grooms children to become demon.
* Seemingly no faggots.
* Multiple couples with children by the anime's end.
* Massive importance on family, tradition and bloodline.

The problem isn't the content itself. Its the publisher. I'm not about to trust Amazon and Netflix blindly when it comes to distributing anime when they have thrown in wokeshit in other stuff they've made. Netflix being the most egregious one seeing what they did to Castlevania.