Will a Demon Slayer movie 2 sequel cap off the anime series now that the Demon Slayer movie box office records have slain all competitors?
It’s a real possibility based on the way the manga was written, and now the production committee is incentivized to release a second Demon Slayer movie.
The Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train box office in Japan grossed 4.623 billion yen (about $44 million USD) over the three-day opening weekend, which beats all previous records by a large margin.
And that’s not even including the international box office numbers. The Demon Slayer movie U.S. release date has been confirmed to be scheduled for early 2021.
Surprisingly, the Demon Slayer movie’s end credits did not tease the sequel plans. Fans were hoping the official announcement would be made at the ending of a special broadcast of the Nada Spider Mountain story arc on Fuji TV.
Ahead of the evening broadcast on October 17, 2020, the official Twitter account had teased anime fans by telling them there would be an “announcement” at the end of the program.
Many fans assumed that the announcement would be the production of the second season. It was a reasonable prediction since anime news leakers claimed earlier in the week that Demon Slayer Season 2 is in production (the timing of the leak happened to coincide with the news that movie ticket pre-sales were off the charts).
Instead, the official announcement at the end of the program was related to a whole bunch of Demon Slayer merchandise. In the same timeframe, the official website was updated to announce that ticket sales are now available for a Demon Slayer concert, which is planned for November 14th and 15th of 2020.
While anime fans are still hoping a Demon Slayer Season 2 TV anime series will eventually officially be confirmed to be in production, the astounding success of the Demon Slayer: Mugen box office gives plenty of reasons to create a Demon Slayer Movie 2.
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Updated October 19, 2020: Added three-day opening total and Sunday numbers.
Demon Slayer movie 2: Sunrise Countdown possible for the final manga story arcs?
The Demon Slayer manga’s ending in 2020 allows for the entire remaining anime series to be planned out in advance by anime studio ufotable. The manga series is 205 chapters in total and the Mugen Train story arc adapted up through around Chapter 69.
From a storytelling perspective, the next story arc after Mugen Train is not a good fit for another movie so it makes sense to adapt it as a TV anime series. Assuming Demon Slayer Season 2 adapts the next two story arcs, that means the anime will adapt manga Chapters 70 through 127 with two anime cours since these story arcs have 58 chapters combined.
That means the Demon Slayer Season 3 anime could adapt most of the ending in the Infinity Castle arc, which is 47 chapters long.
The final story arc, the Sunrise Countdown arc, is only 22 chapters long whereas Mugen Train was 17 chapters. While a movie adaptation would have a longer runtime, it’d make financial sense to adapt the final ending as Demon Slayer Movie 2, which could potentially be titled as Demon Slayer: Sunrise Countdown.
For more details and spoilers, see our regularly updated story on the Demon Slayer Season 2 release date.
Demon Slayer movie box office records beat all movies in Japan, not just anime
When the Demon Slayer theater tickets went on sale earlier in the week, the demand was so high that websites were crashing. The film set records in multiple ways.
With 6,170 showings in 2676 theaters, the film had the highest number of Japanese theater showings in a single day, beating the previous record-holder, Frozen 2, which had 3,786 showings.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix previously held the record for 805,000 single-day admissions on its second day. The Demon Slayer movie blew past that record with an estimated 945,200 admissions on Friday.
Friday is usually one of the lowest days on opening weekend, so it wasn’t too surprising that the Mugen Train gained even more speed on Saturday with 1,370,700 admissions. On Sunday, the movie posted 1,376,600 admissions, which meant another new box office record had barely been set.
Note: These box office record numbers are estimates based on early data. The official numbers have not been announced yet.
The Demon Slayer box office record for Friday was an estimated 1.23 billion yen (about $11.7 million USD) assuming the average ticket price is 1,300 yen. Saturday’s record was an estimated 1.78 billion yen (about $16.9 million USD). Sunday’s new record was an estimated 1.79 billion yen (about $17 million USD).
It should be noted that the movie theater system went down multiple times throughout Saturday so the final numbers will likely be higher. In addition, other sources claim slightly higher numbers, saying that Mugen Train scored $18.3 million USD for a combined total of $31.3 million USD.
Since the Mugen Train didn’t lose steam on Sunday, the box office record was over 4.623 billion yen (around $44 million USD) for the entire three-day weekend.
To put these numbers into perspective, Frozen 2’s opening weekend in Japan was the previous record-holder for all movies at 1.88 billion yen (about $17.8 million USD). When it comes to anime, Weathering With You made 1.5 billion (about $15.22 million USD) over three days.
Your Name had a lower opening weekend total, but it posted a higher total over time (25 billion yen) than Weathering With You (14 billion yen). The current box office record holder for all anime movies is Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away at 30.8 billion yen, but its opening weekend record was only 1.05 billion (about $9.9 million USD).
According to Sports Hochi, the Japanese advertising company responsible for promoting the Demon Slayer movie believes the film chug along past the 10 billion yen mark.
“There is a good chance that it will exceed that number,” a representative said.
These astounding during a pandemic is largely due to the timing of the premiere, which created the perfect storm for success. On October 12, 2020, the same that Mugen Train premiered, movie theaters in Japan lifted all seating restrictions in accordance with the Japanese government’s guidelines. While there are still some theaters offering limited seating, Friday was the first day the majority of theater seatings were completely reopened.
Hopefully, both a Demon Slayer Season 2 TV anime series and a Demon Slayer Movie 2 will eventually be announced. Stay tuned!