‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ hits $450m at global box office; ‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ lands with $30m

Worldwide box office: September 5-7 

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ hits $450m worldwide total

Sony/Crunchyroll’s expansion of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle into North America and internationally beyond Asia saw the film smash box office records.

This latest instalment of the Demon Slayer franchise grossed an estimated $70.0m in North America (the biggest opening ever for an anime film) and $78.0m in international markets, combining to deliver $148.0m for the weekend session.

Cumulative total is now $450.4m, including Toho/Aniplex’s Japan release since July 18, and Sony/Crunchyroll’s late-August rollout in Asian markets including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. South Korea welcomed the film on August 22.

Sony/Crunchyroll added 49 fresh international markets at the weekend, bringing the worldwide territory total to 64. French- and German-speaking markets receive the film this coming weekend.

Latin America delivered a powerful estimated $29.0m for Infinity Castle, setting records as the biggest ever anime opening in Mexico ($9.8m), Brazil ($4.4m), Peru ($2.8m), Central America ($2.4m), Argentina ($2.2m) and Chile ($2.2m).

Europe delivered an estimated $17.4m, and the Middle East $6.0m. Key markets that opened Infinity Castle as the top anime ever include UK/Ireland ($4.6m), Spain ($3.7m), Italy ($3.0m), Saudi Arabia ($2.8m) and UAE ($1.4m).

India launched to a powerful estimated $5.2m, the biggest opening weekend for any anime or animation film. Australia opened with $3.2m, the highest opening for an anime.

Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle is the first original film in the Demon Slayer series since 2020’s Kimetsu No Yaiba Mugen Train, with films compiled from the Demon Slayer anime TV series released in between.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Mugen Train grossed $485.5m worldwide including $365.7m in Japan, according to available data. With total box office already exceeding $450m, Infinity Castle is going to sail past that number and become the franchise’s biggest entry to date.

Directed by Haruo Sotozaki and produced by ufotable, Infinity Castle is the first in a trilogy of films that will conclude the Demon Slayer saga. The films are based on the manga series by Koyoharu Gotoge. 

‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ makes $30m debut

Universal/Focus Features’ Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale has landed in third place in Comscore’s worldwide weekend box office chart, below Infinity Castle and last week’s chart champ, The Conjuring: Last Rites.

This third and final Downton Abbey film opened with an estimated $18.1m in North America and $12.3m across 31 international markets – yielding a $30.4m debut total.

UK/Ireland, unsurprisingly, proved the top international market, with a chart-topping estimated $6.3m – above the debut of second entry Downton Abbey: A New Era in 2022 (£3.1m – $4.2m at current exchange rates), but behind the opening number for 2019’s Downton Abbey (£5.2m – $7.1m).

France opened The Grand Finale with an estimated $1.4m – good enough for second place at the country’s weekend box office, behind fellow opener The Conjuring: Last Rites.

Future key markets include Germany (September 18), Mexico (October 9), Spain (October 10) and Japan (January 16).

The Grand Finale is chasing the $194.7m achieved by Downton Abbey and $92.7m reached by sequel A New Era (according to available data). Universal should be ecstatic to land somewhere between those two box office totals by the end of the film’s run.

Also for Universal, DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys 2 added an estimated $6.0m at the weekend, bringing the worldwide total to $199.6m. The film began its rollout in delayed July, and is now in its eighth week of release. In 2022, The Bad Guys grossed $250.4m according to available data. 

‘The Long Walk’ steps out with $14m

Lionsgate’s Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk has opened with an estimated $14.3m – driven by $11.5m in North America, plus $2.8m across 19 international markets.

With Francis Lawrence as director, and the film’s dystopian survival-contest premise, The Long Walk invites comparisons with the Hunger Games franchise. But the Winnipeg-shot film’s contained scale and $20m production budget means that The Long Walk looks well on course for profitability, despite much more modest box office than achieved by Hunger Games films.

Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson lead the cast in this adaptation of King’s book – published in 1979, but substantially written in 1966-67 while the author was a student at the University of Maine. The story sees 50 juvenile men pitted in a contest of continuous walking that ends only when 49 have been killed for slowing their pace or faltering. 

‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ boosted by opening in France

Being both a horror film and a sequel, Warner Bros’ The Conjuring: Last Rites predictably took a massive tumble in its second weekend of play, dropping 69% in North America and 58% in international holdover markets.

Last Rites grossed an estimated $26.1m in North America and $60.5m for international – the latter boosted by a $9.3m opening in France. Totals after two weekends are $131.1m in North America and $201.8m across international markets. Global total is thus $332.9m.

In cumulative, top international market is UK/Ireland ($21.2m), ahead of Mexico ($16.1m), Brazil ($13.4m), India ($10.4m) and Germany ($10.3m).

Last Rites has already overtaken all three previous entries in The Conjuring franchise. According to available data, The Conjuring grossed $320.4m globally in 2013; The Conjuring 2 reached $322.8m in 2016; and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It saw the franchise dip with a $206.4m total in post-pandemic 2021. These numbers are not adjusted for inflation.

The highest-grossing film in The Conjuring Universe (which so far comprises nine films) remains 2018’s The Nun, with $366.1m.