This is far more than just a fluke at the North American box office. “Demon Slayer” has now earned nearly $80 million in the U.S., as a franchise, since 2021. That’s a meaningful amount of money, particularly given that these movies have often arrived on otherwise relatively dead weekends when theaters could use the help. We also had “Dragon Ball: Super Hero” topping the charts in 2022, giving another long-running, beloved series its day in the sun on the big screen.
Perhaps more telling was the prosperity of “The Boy and the Heron” last year. Hayao Miyazaki is an absolute legend but he had never seen success on that level, with the film ultimately making nearly $46 million in the States. It was one of the biggest surprises of the second half of 2023, right alongside “Godzilla Minus One.” Yes, these anime movies often drop off dramatically on their second weekend, but it hardly matters. Ticket sales in the U.S. are often just icing on the cake for the distributors as these projects aren’t dependent on this market for success. Yet, with American studios and theaters embracing anime (and Japanese imports in general), we’re seeing a reliable market emerge.
Even if we get back to a place of relative normalcy at the box office, and if things ever stabilize, it’s likely that these anime releases are here to stay. This audience turns up reliably time and time again now that they are finally being catered to. In short? It’s anime to the rescue.
“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba—To the Hashira Training” is in theaters now.