Demon Slayer passes Frozen and Your Name at Japanese box office, Shinkai comments on its success

No Disney movie has ever earned as much at theaters in Japan as the seemingly unstoppable Mugen Train.

As in many other countries, 2020 has been a rough year for the movie industry in Japan, with the coronavirus pandemic causing temporary theater closures, reduced seating once they reopened, and the public in general avoiding trips to the movies. But while numbers are down for the industry as a whole, there’s one in-theaters feature that’s having historic success, and that’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train.

Mugen means “infinite,” and that almost seems like it could describe Mugen Train’s momentum too. After opening just over a month ago, on October 16, it took only 10 days to earn 10 billion yen (US$95.2 million) in box office revenue, making it the fastest to reach that mark in the history of the Japanese film industry. Ticket sales have remained strong, and as of November 24 Mugen Train’s earnings are up to 25,917,043,800 yen (US$246,828,988), raising it to the number-three movie of all time in Japanese theater revenue.

The latest bump powered Mugen Train past both Your Name and Frozen, so the film can now boast that it’s beaten every single Disney movie at the Japanese box office, with the current top five looking like this:

1. Spirited Away: 30.8 billion yen
2. Titanic: 26.2 billion yen
3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train: 25.9 billion yen
4. Frozen: 25.5 billion yen
5. Your Name: 25 billion yen

As Mugen Train steamed past Your Name, the latter anime’s director, Makoto Shinkai, took to Twitter to comment on the revised rankings.

ええっ、もう！？笑
悔しいなあと思いつつも、記録が常に上書きされていくのもエンタメの持つ健全さですね。僕も良い映画が作れるよう、せめて日々がんばります。

劇場版「鬼滅の刃」歴代3位に！『君の名は。』『アナ雪』超え https://t.co/vRMp8VYvqa @cinematodayより

— 新海誠 (@shinkaimakoto) November 24, 2020

“What? It’s already earned that much? LOL
It’s vexing [to be passed up in the rankings], but records inevitably being broken is a sign of a healthy entertainment industry. I’ll keep working hard every day so I can make a good movie too.”

With Mugen Train trailing Titanic by only about 300 million yen, it seems like a sure thing that the Demon Slayer movie will surpass its mass transit-set cinematic brethren, leaving Spirited Away as the only movie still out in front of it. If Mugen Train does eventually take the top spot, though, we probably shouldn’t expect Hayao Miyazaki to have much to say about it.

Source: Livedoor News/Oricon News via Jin, Otakomu
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