Demon Slayer Movie Nets Biggest US Opening for Foreign-Language Film
The Demon Slayer movie finally opened in the US over the weekend, going head to head with Mortal Kombat for box office supremacy. While the latter managed to edge out the former slightly, Demon Slayer — Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Mugen Train still knocked out a mighty impressive performance, ending the weekend with the title of the biggest US opening ever for a foreign-language film.
The estimated weekend gross for the subbed and dubbed Demon Slayer movie topped out at $19,542,227, giving it an advantage over the previous champ—Zhang Yimou's Hero—which opened in 2004 to the tune of $17.8 million.
It's not quite the champ when it comes to anime films in the US, but it's close. While we're running on estimates and not counting inflation at the moment, the Demon Slayer movie is in third place for domestic anime film releases behind Pokémon 2000 - The Movie ($19,575,608) in second place and 1999's Pokémon: The First Movie ($31,036,678) in first. Both of those were released with an English dub only in the US, which is why they're not currently reigning over all the other foreign-language films.
If you don't get a chance to see Demon Slayer on the big screen, the movie is coming home digitally on June 22.
