Demon Slayer Mugen Train’s US Opening Weekend Breaks Foreign-language Film Record

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train has broken the record for highest opening for a foreign-language film in the United States, with the movie taking in $19.5 million over the weekend.

Mugen Train, which premiered in the US on April 23, ended the weekend in second place to Mortal Kombat, which premiered in the country the same day and took in slightly over $22.5 million. 

In December 2020, Mugen Train became the top-grossing film in Japan 73 days after its release, with a gross of roughly $314 million at the time. The movie currently has a gross of $365 million in Japan and a worldwide gross of $407,697,666, and is the highest-grossing anime film of all time.

Mugen Train is a sequel to the 2019 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba TV series. Both are based on the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge, which concluded in 2020. A second season for the anime is set to release in 2021, while the manga will receive a spin-off focusing on the character Kyojuro Rengoku, who features prominently in Mugen Train

Aniplex of America describes the first season as: 

It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself. Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.

Update: Funimation tweeted on April 27 (12:18AM GMT+8) that Mugen Train had earned over $21 million at the US box office.


Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Box Office Mojo, Box Office Guru

Melvyn originally wanted to write about video games, and he did so for a few years, starting from his college days. He still writes about video games sometimes, but now focuses on anime-related news content and the occasional review. Some of his free time is spent self-learning Japanese, both out of interest in the language and because English-translated light novels and manga are expensive. Every anime season, Melvyn looks forward to discovering new standout episodes and OP/ED animation sequences, as well as learning about the storyboard artists and directors behind them.
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