Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train has been tearing it up in Japan for half a year now, but Japan’s newest and most spectacular anime export had a tough challenge as it faced up against the gory and divisive Mortal Kombat. And it so happens that the box office fight just gave Demon Slayer the biggest premiere ever for a non-English film in the United States.

The anime film's absolute domination of Asian cinemas has propelled it to become the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, surpassing Hideo Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, which also enjoyed a similar level of international appeal, even if Demon Slayer's general themes kept it from snatching an Oscar nomination. Suffice to say, Demon Slayer has had plenty of hype surrounding its long-awaited arrival on American shores.

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Ultimately, Tanjiro Kamado and the rest of the Demon Slayers fell short of Mortal Kombat's $22.5 million box office haul, yet the movie still brought home an impressive $19.5 million, beating the previous record for a foreign language film's North American debut set by Zhang Yimou's Hero ($17.8 million). In fact, Demon Slayer's anime prowess is only beaten by Pokemon: The First Movie and Pokemon 2000 - The Movie, though these two had the huge benefit of being English dubs, so it's really apples to oranges once Pokemon joins that conversation.

The film is being distributed in the United States by Funimation and Aniplex, premiering last Friday, April 23, although a digital release will follow starting June 22. The Demon Slayer movie picks up right after the events of the anime’s first season, so those curious to go see what it’s all about would really benefit from watching all 26 episodes in season one, which are readily available on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and Funimation.

Season two of the anime series is expected to be released during 2021, though no official premiere date has been announced on behalf of Ufotable animation. As if all that wasn’t enough, the franchise also has an upcoming video game adaptation, nevertheless, the title admittedly doesn’t look nearly as exciting as the Demon Slayer anime or the manga that inspired it, which packs a lot of stories.

In recent weeks, Demon Slayer's momentum finally started to give in as Neon Genesis Evangelion also raided Japanese cinemas with the final part of the Rebuild film saga, 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. Just don’t expect that one to pass Demon Slayer's $456 million worldwide revenue or match its American performance once it gets to the U.S.

Demon Slayer is now playing in theaters.

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Source: The Hollywood Reporter