September was to bring a big slowdown for the box office, but the opening to the “dune” of “The Conjuring: Last Rites” postponed this dark forecast, and now more help comes from Sony / Crunchyroll’s “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle”, which made an altitude for having broken the film asia to the tune of 203 million Dollars alone in Japan to provide record records for a time film.
While Sony is planning an opening weekend of $ 35 million for “Infinity Castle”, independent trackers provide for a start of $ 40 million for the film, which will have an IMAX support. It would be enough to make “Infinity Castle” the highest weekend of opening the anime in American history before the adjustment of inflation.
This record belongs to the 1999 film “Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back”, released at the height of the cultural popularity of the Nintendo franchise and winning a fri.-Sun. The unsuccessful opening of $ 31 million as part of a launch of $ 50 million to 5 days. Adjusted for inflation, this total FSS is equivalent to $ 60 million, which may seem too much to ask “Infinity Castle”.
But Daniel Loria, main vice-president of the content strategy and editorial director of Box Office Pro, said that exhibitors who contribute to the box office projections of his site are extremely optimistic about “Infinity Castle”, signaling presale far beyond what they have ever seen for an anime film.
And while Loria reiterated that a $ 40 million weekend would be considered a success, these exhibitors tell him that they are possible for “Infinity Castle” to clean 60 million dollars, which would not only go beyond the anime film “Mewtwo strikes” 28 years later “and would become Sony’s highest film in a” Spider “.
“The fact that such a figure is even on the table shows how great” Demon Slayer “is and how the anime has become a theatrical force,” said Loria.
Four years ago, the latest film “Demon Slayer”, “Mugen Train”, became one of the films that helped the rooms to get back in business after a year of comfortable closings, earning an opening weekend of $ 21.2 million and a total of $ 49.5 million in total in the United States.
But that turns pale compared to what “Mugen Train” did in the rest of the world, especially in Japan, where it was released in October 2020 at the height of the pandemic but brought in 40.7 billion yen, or $ 386 million. This allowed him to beat the record held for 19 years by “Spirited Away” to become the most profitable film in Japan of all time, and with a global total of $ 506 million, it is the most profitable anime film of all time.
“Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” cemented the franchise, which first made its debut as a manga in 2016 and followed a group of qualified Taishō warriors responsible for chasing evil demons, as the last global phenomenon to come from “Naruto” and one song. He also established an increasing increasing power of anime at the world box office, on which Sony sought to capitalize when he acquired Crunchyroll in the streaming service in 2017.
“Mugen Train” apparently came out of nowhere, with the executive vice-president of Crunchyroll, Mitchell Berger, telling thewrap that his old traditional Hollywood connections asked him where it came from.
Now, “Infinity Castle” is expected to breathe beyond the bar in the United States by “Mugen Train”, with national theaters after raising 295 million dollars internationally-including 203 million dollars in Japan, the third of all time.
“Infinity Castle” is the first of a film trilogy that promises to conclude the story of “Demon Slayer”. To get an idea of what it means for the fans, imagine if “Game of Thrones” has completed his adaptation with a series of films instead of the past rushed seasons.
Even if he does not strike the heights suggested by Loria, “Demon Slayer” will help consolidate theaters to make them spend a slower October which is without “Michael” and “Mortal Kombat II”, two films which had been scheduled for next month but which moved in May 2026.
This weekend, “The Long Walk” of Lionsgate, the adaptation by Francis Lawrence by Francis Lawrence of the first darkest novel by Stephen King – and undoubtedly his darker. The film is screened for opening in low adolescents in the mid-Milieu, with Lionsgate projecting at least 10 million dollars for this redeveloped dystopian horror film with a budget of $ 20 million.
With Mark Hamill as an adult in an army in an American totalitarian where 100 young men are constantly walking until we stay, “The Long Walk” realized criticism as one of the best King’s adaptations of all time with a 96%rotten score.
But even in their praise, criticisms have warned that Lawrence does not punch to bring the relentless and horrible violence of King’s novel on the big screen, putting a limit to its potential at the box office. However, the film should make a respectable profit at a time when the Lionsgate films division improved its sequence of crises the year last year, but still seeks more coherent theatrical performance.
For those who are in older demographic data, or simply looking for something without katanas or machine guns, Focus features offers “Downton Abbey: The Grand Final”. As its name suggests, it was the last chapter of the “Downton Abbey” saga, which started 15 years ago with a television series that worked on ITV in the United Kingdom and PBS in America for six seasons before going to theaters with two films in 2019 and 2022.
The first film “Downton” opened its doors at $ 31 million and reached a total of $ 96.8 million and a world total of $ 194 million, including $ 34.4 million in Great Britain. But the follow -up of 2022 “A New Era” was much more silent with an opening of $ 16 million for $ 44.1 million national dollars and $ 92.6 million worldwide.
“The Grand Final”, which is designed as an affectionate farewell for and for “Downton”, the faithful are planned for a similar opening of $ 15 to 17 million this weekend of 3,673 theaters. The opinions were largely positive with a score of 92% on rotten tomatoes.
