‘Demon Slayer’ animates audience
LOS ANGELES Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle carved out a place in box office history this weekend as the Japanese anime film sliced straight to No outpacing the horror sequel The Conjuring Last Rites The Sony-owned Crunchyroll release shattered expectations with a mighty million debut in North America according to Sunday estimates from Comscore That haul marks the biggest domestic opening ever for an anime film surpassing Pok mon The First Movie which opened with million in The film extended its meteoric run scoring the biggest anime opening of all time with a million weekend according to Comscore Crunchyroll and Sony rolled it out across North America and international markets pushing the global total to million This performance by this particular film shows the unpredictability of the box office stated Paul Dergarabedian the senior media analyst for Comscore If we were sitting here let s say a month or even a couple of weeks ago would we be thinking Wow a Japanese anime film would be number one at the box office overperform and bring in million If you predicted that kudos to you The latest movie is the first in a three-film trilogy that brings the hit Shonen saga to its climactic showdown The story follows Tanjiro Kamado a kind-hearted boy who takes up swordsmanship after his family is slaughtered and his sister Nezuko is turned into a demon Together they fight a supernatural underworld of monstrous foes while clinging to what s left of their humanity The Infinity Castle opener hails from renowned studio Ufotable whose lavish visuals and breakneck fight sequences have helped make the franchise a global sensation and juggernaut The film s domination also points to a September rebound after a sluggish August Warner Bros The Conjuring Last Rites which opened to million last weekend slipped to second with million The horror sequel has now scared up million domestically This shows that two months of down trending box office can be totally reversed over the discipline of a couple of weekends Dergarabedian commented Focus Features Downton Abbey The Grand Finale opened in third with million Set in the s the film finds Lady Mary embroiled in a society embarrassment as the Crawleys confront financial strain and the looming threat of social disgrace While the aristocratic family adapts to change the household staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton into the future In fourth place Lionsgate s The Long Walk debuted with million It was directed by Francis Lawrence the adaptation of Stephen King s first-written novel is a thriller that asks a chilling question How far would you go to survive Pixar s Toy Story th Anniversary brought Buzz Woody and the gang back to the big screen opening in fifth with million across theaters Warner Bros Weapons followed in sixth with million while Disney s filmed musical Hamilton landed seventh with million Freakier Friday claimed eighth with million Rounding out the top Spinal Tap II The End Continues bowed with million narrowly edging The Sound of Music th Anniversary which sang up million Dergarabedian announced he expects more September good fortunes with the release of Jordan Peele s horror film HIM next week and Paul Thomas Anderson s One Battle After Another coming out this month September after a very modest month of August is proving to be an absolutely fantastic post-summer month for movies and for audiences and for movie theaters he stated
