"Demon Slayer" Movie Tops Japan's Box-Office Rankings

Tokyo, Dec. 28 (Jiji Press)--The animated film "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" has topped Japan's all-time box-office rankings for movies, industry data showed Monday. Revenue from the movie based on the "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" blockbuster manga series reached 32,478 million yen by Sunday, its distributors Toho Co. <9602> and Aniplex Inc. said. The Demon Slayer movie overtook "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi," or Spirited Away, an animated film by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki that was released in 2001 and earned 31,680 million yen, according to movie information provider Kogyo Tsushinsha. The box-office revenue of the Demon Slayer movie reached 4.6 billion yen in the first three days after its release on Oct. 16. It exceeded 10 billion yen in the first 10 days, 20 billion yen in the first 24 days and 30 billion yen in mid-December, becoming the fastest film to hit the milestones. The movie is a sequel to an animated television series premiered in 2019. They are based on the manga series featuring a boy fighting human-eating demons that killed members of his family. Koyoharu Gotoge created the manga series. The TV series is widely seen to have sparked the Demon Slayer boom, contributing to a growing fan base. The cumulative circulation of the Demon Slayer comic books, including digital books, has topped 100 million copies. Also reflecting the popularity of the movie version, many fans flocked to book stores on Dec. 4, when the 23rd and final volume of the manga series went on sale. The boom has rippled across the economy, including the retail and tourism industries, with the phenomenon dubbed "Kimetsunomics" by some analysts. As one factor behind the popularity of the Demon Slayer film, Makoto Kanazawa, a movie journalist, highlights the depiction of attractive characters, saying that their attitude to life raised sympathy among the audience. Meanwhile, Hiroo Otaka, another movie journalist, said the revenue surge of the Demon Slayer movie partly reflected the postponed releases of overseas blockbuster films in Japan amid the pandemic. "There was room for more frequent screenings to meet growing demand," Otaka said. END