Sony and Crunchyroll’s anime sensation Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle continues to burn bright at the global box office. The smash-hit animated fantasy opened in China over the weekend, earning a strong $52.4 million from Friday to Sunday and lifting its worldwide total to a staggering $730 million. Released locally by Maoyan, the film’s word-of-mouth has been overwhelmingly positive despite the recent flare-up in geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Tokyo that has been widely covered in Chinese state media.
Infinity Castle has already notched several major box office records: It ranks as the fifth-biggest global release of 2025, the top Japanese movie of all time at the worldwide box office and the highest-grossing international film ever in North America (supplanting longtime record holder Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).
Infinity Castle was especially powerful on Imax screens during its first weekend in China. It opened to $11.5 million in the giant-screen format, representing 25 percent of the nationwide total. The anime juggernaut also delivered the biggest Imax opening weekend ever for a Japanese feature in China, while additionally notching the second-largest Imax debut for an animated film in the country, behind only 2025’s current global box-office champ, Ne Zha 2.
Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) originates from the wildly popular manga by Japanese artist Koyoharu Gotouge. Following the debut of its first TV anime adaptation in 2019, the property swiftly became one of Japan’s most beloved pop-culture exports. The story centers on Tanjiro Kamado, a kindhearted boy who becomes a “demon slayer” after his family is murdered and his younger sister Nezuko is transformed into a demon. With lavish animation from Tokyo studio Ufotable and an emotionally charged blend of family bonds, heroism and dark fantasy, the franchise soared to new heights with its first feature film, Mugen Train, which grossed more than $500 million worldwide in 2020 — an impressive feat at a time when the theatrical business was still heavily challenged by the pandemic.
In contrast to the fading appeal of Hollywood imports, Japanese anime has remained a consistent powerhouse at the Chinese box office. Over the past several years, Japanese animated features such as Suzume, The First Slam Dunk and Spy x Family Code: White have routinely outperformed big-budget U.S. studio releases, buoyed by China’s version of the same young, online-savvy audience that has made anime a blockbuster content category worldwide in recent years.
Infinity Castle is the first installment in a planned trilogy adapting the “Final Battle” arc that concludes the Demon Slayer saga — a strong start that underscores Sony’s long-game approach to building a global anime pipeline. Analysts have viewed Demon Slayer‘s success as clear validation of the company’s investment in its Crunchyroll anime division, which has evolved from a niche streaming platform into a key pillar of Sony’s content ecosystem. The anime business has become a cornerstone of Sony’s broader effort to leverage Japan’s most popular cultural exports — including gaming IP and anime — into consistent global box-office results.
