For the first time ever, an anime film has topped the U.S. box office for two weekends as Sony/Crunchyroll’s “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” has stayed No.1 with $16 million in its second weekend.
Despite a 76% drop from its record $70 million domestic opening — highest ever for an anime film — “Demon Slayer” is holding on against Universal/Monkeypaw’s “Him,” which is No. 2 with a $13.5 million opening from 3,168 theaters.
While Crunchyroll’s latest film is proving to be as frontloaded as all of the anime distributor’s offerings — two-thirds of the opening weekend tickets for “Demon Slayer” came from presales — the fanbase for this shonen franchise is so massive that “Infinity Castle” is now both the highest grossing anime film in American history with $104 million and counting as well as Sony’s highest grossing film of any kind in 2025.
It is the sort of result that speaks both to the popularity of “Demon Slayer” and Sony’s cultivation of Crunchyroll as a hotspot for anime fans both on streaming and in theaters. With successful targeted digital marketing and trailers in front of Imax screenings this summer, “Infinity Castle” became a can’t-miss film for longtime fans as theaters became the only place for fans to see the latest chapter of the TV series’ current arc.
Farther down the charts, “Him” should break even for Universal against its reported $27 million net budget before marketing, but it is likely to have a short shelf life in theaters as critics have rejected the sports horror film with a 29% Rotten Tomatoes scores while audiences have given it a C- on CinemaScore.
More to come…
