Japanese anime Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has been slaying box office records for a couple of months today; the slaying begins in India this weekend. Even before a single show has been played, it has already become the highest-grossing non-Hollywood foreign film in India, surpassing Suzume and Jujutsu Kaisen 0, both of which earned around Rs. 10 crore.
As of this morning, Infinity Castle has clocked nearly Rs. 15 crore in pre-sales. The sales are not only strong for the weekend but are spilling over to weekdays. This comes with an extremely restricted rollout, with advance still not open even in the national chain properties across key centres like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and practically all tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Even so, PVRINOX and Cinepolis have already amassed over Rs. 10 crore in advances for the weekend. Once the advance plans open everywhere, expect absolute mayhem.
Japanese anime has seen a surge in popularity across the world, and India is no exception. At the forefront of this popularity wave is Demon Slayer. The first film from the franchise, Mugen Train, was released in a COVID market and yet obliterated records for Japanese cinema across the board. That appeared to be the ceiling; however, it’s the Infinity Castle which is showing the true potential, shattering the ceiling.
Mugen Train barely had a release in India, and since then, the franchise has only grown, building an undercurrent of fandom that is about to erupt on full display this week.
The signs were always there. Interest counts on ticketing portal BookMyShow were massive, exceeding some of the biggest blockbusters locally. However, with the tendency of these films to be fan-driven, it was an uncharted territory, tough to put a number to. Even today, it’s not clear what the potential really is here. Infinity Castle will end up with an advance of over Rs. 30 crore, maybe even Rs. 40 crore or Rs. 50 crore. There is no telling. How much it does after that, no one knows. For today, the only thing to do is sit back and series it unfold.
Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.
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