Infinity Castle’ Is About To Hit A Wild Box Office Milestone

There are two stories here. One is that Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is a monster franchise, and the entire world is embracing anime in a way it never has before. The other is that the superhero genre is slipping significantly, no matter how many big names are rolled out.

The development today is that by the end of this week, if not a few days from now, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is about to pass the DCU’s Superman at the global box office. Currently, it’s at $605 million to Superman’s $615 million, but it will pass it soon. If it squeezes out $30 more million before the end of its run, that would make it the fifth highest-earning movie of the year after Ne Zha 2, Lilo and Stitch, A Minecraft Movie and Jurassic World Rebirth (though we still have an Avatar movie to go).

When Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle passes Superman, that will be the third time it’s done that with a superhero movie this year. The Fantastic Four: First Steps earned $521 million. Captain America: Brave New World earned $415 million. And poor Thunderbolts, the best of those movies, frankly, earned $382 million, which Disney considers a flop. Three of those, notably, are big comic book names, especially Superman, which is launching an entirely new comic book universe as the most recognizable hero in the world.

A big part of the story here is the international box office which has fallen sharply for superhero movies especially. Superman, for instance, had a split of 57% domestic and 43% international, terrible for the genre. And then you look at Demon Slayer with a 19.5% domestic and 80.5% international divide. A wild difference, and the movie has set global records for Japanese film, and despite that split, it is the highest-earning anime movie in US history.

With over $600 million in earnings, Demon Slayer is looking to turn this Infinity Castle trilogy into something that will likely make between $1.5 and $2 billion before all is said and done. It is also reportedly fast-tracking a live-action adaptation of the franchise over at Netflix, which is also moving forward with an adaptation of Solo Leveling, a new anime which has already become the most popular in Crunchyroll history. After Demon Slayer, you may want to be on the lookout for some Solo Leveling box office releases in the coming years, as I mean, just look at these numbers.

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Forbes