We had another stunner of a weekend at the box office.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – the Movie: Infinity Castle shattered the record for biggest opening weekend domestic gross for an anime movie, hauling in an estimated $70 million (per CNN). That's more than double the previous benchmark held by 1999's Pokémon: The First Movie, which grossed $31 million in its opening weekend. It's also Sony's biggest opening of not just 2025, but also bigger than any of its hits last year.Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore, told CNN that Infinity Castle is a "box office juggernaut." It now holds the record for the sixth-largest September opening ever at the box office.What makes this performance even more impressive is the marketing efficiency behind it. - YouTube www.youtube.com Low Marketing Spend vs. Big FanbaseAs Deadline points out, the press and advertising spend on the project was relatively low, at around $10 million to $12 million. I saw a few Fandango event-style trailers at my local AMC, but it seems the most targeted ads ran on Crunchyroll, where the film's audience already lives. Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of analytics firm Box Office Theory, said the anime genre has "been building to a performance like this for several years" (via CNN).So, the fanbase was there. It just needed the right project to unite around.Second-Week Box Office DropsMeanwhile, last weekend's champion took a tumble. As we've learned The Hollywood Reporter's story, the second week of a film's...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday