Awkward timing for covid to ramp up for sure. It should be less than 5B away from SA coming off of like a 2.5B week so not too concerned about that, but the ability to land in the 35-40B range may be stopped by covid.

Before I sleep for the night, Demon Slayer is looking excellent once again today, currently aiming for a sub-20% or possibly a sub-15% drop versus last Thursday.

And regarding the virus, in every way, it's just a wait and see situation. At the moment, nothing has been announced, no noticeable impacts have occurred, so it's all just speculation or guesses right now. We'll have answers soon though on how things could go starting tomorrow.

Just know that any lockdown is still likely far off, if it would happen. The first step will of course be to put restrictions in back in place, and in the case of movie theaters, that likely means going back to 50% capacity on the weekends and holidays for awhile again. And that is probably the best decision, and one they should implement soon again. The box office did just fine under the restrictions in July/August, so as long as demand persists, the box office will be fine. It'll just become slower paced and resemble how the Japan box office typically behaves again (leggy).

Movie theaters are low-risk, especially at 50%, so don't be concerned before anything happens to cause concern. Essentially, avoid worrying or stressing ABOUT being worried or stressed.

Possibly, but I wouldn't expect so yet. The family/child-skewing films (such as Pokemon next month) would be the most likely to be delayed, but as long as theaters are open, even at 50%, I don't think anything in December will be delayed as most of them were already delayed many months to begin with. They didn't delay the Spring releases from their new August spots when wave 2 hit in July, so I wouldn't anticipate the Summer releases to be delayed from their new December spots due to wave 3.

Japan makes A LOT of films. Not releasing them is just going to cause a congestion of sorts, with films running together (we already have 3 Doraemon films in just 7 months...), especially the film franchises that see one or more releases each year.

Obviously not a real problem in the grand scheme of things, but it will be unfortunate to wonder if the final total gets stymied in any way (shades of Frozen's DVD release in terms of a potential retrospective "what if?" scenario), although hopefully any impact wouldn't be that pronounced when it's all said and done.

I don't hope and don't think the Japanese cinemas will close but all I hope is that even if the cinemas go back to 50% capacity, Demon Slayer will perform just as well, and that the Japanese go to the cinema anyway (without taking any risk of course)

Thursday remained strong throughout the day, nearly matching (practically on par) with Tuesday for the first time.

Tomorrow is the first day of Stand By Me, Doraemon 2, and it looks like theaters made a goof by giving it the largest screen and one or two more IMAX showings versus Demon Slayer. Reservations are very low, even for Saturday at the moment, especially the IMAX showings which are dismal. Friday was always expected to be low, as films skewing toward family audiences perform poorly on non-summer/holiday weekdays, but even then, it looks rather low right now.

It's not surprising theaters decided to give it a very wide release for its first day/week, it's the first big release since Demon Slayer (entering its 6th week) and the original film was a big success (and Doraemon franchise/band itself is iconic and reliable), but its potential appears to have been overestimated quite a bit. But it could also be some COVID influence having a negative impact on it, too. As I've mentioned, the family/children films have really been the only ones not meeting expectations this year, so this is likely following that trend.

This doesn't necessarily hurt Demon Slayer, as it still has enough seating/screens, etc., to post big numbers, but once its screens start reaching 80% full or higher (which looks like it's going to be quite common at the busier locations), it could deter those more wary of attending a packed showing due to COVID.

Unless Doraemon has some incredible walk-up business, Demon Slayer is going to clobber it this weekend, and it's very likely that theaters are going to move Demon Slayer back to the biggest screen and give it the IMAX advantage again next week.

Corpse do you think stand by me Doraemon 2 might beat this year's August film?

It's hard to say. The market is very unpredictable right now. It's opened at a very inconvenient time, but it had to open eventually, so what can you do? As long as it has an opening weekend on par with New Dinosaur, then it *should* beat it.

It'll have a lower Friday almost by default due to the November release versus August release (non-summer weekday versus summer weekday), but I would expect it to have a stronger weekend frame.

Today's situation

It's strange, seeing yesterday's announcements, I said to myself Demon Slayer may fall more heavily today but it's the opposite, it's a Thursday even stronger than I would have estimated with a droo around 10% and a Thursday very close to Tuesday.

My numbers for today are 110k admissions and $1.4M, don't know if you got the same @Corpse?

Yeah, the COVID cases are almost certainly hurting Doraemon (and any future family/children films for awhile).

At least Demon Slayer is multi-generational, because it seems largely unaffected right now.

EDIT! Looked at wrong day~ There are already theaters reaching 50% full *showings* tomorrow, and Saturday is filling up faster.

There're 2 possible reasons for Thursday's overperform, first today is the "memorial" day for , one of the main characters in DS, second since Doraemon will have the largest screen and more IMAX showings over the weekend, some people may rush to see it before that.

I saw some people on Twitter say "-50% seats due to covid and -40% sessions due to Doraemon. The ¥30 billion seems pretty tough now", people are really pessimistic for nothing

I'm pretty sure if DS is less than ￥1b short of Spirited Away, Aniplex will be giving more giveaways to promote the box office

Try not to be influenced by Twitter or other social media sites. They're mostly filled with negative Nancy's.

What they fail to say is that even with the seating/showing decline (which isn't related to COVID at all yet), is that its seating/showings are similar to the first week for most blockbusters. It doesn't need the same amount of seating or shows as its first few weeks. And its showings are actually higher than anything still except for Frozen II's opening weekend.

And it's very likely, assuming Doraemon "disappoints" (unfortunately) and Demon Slayer repeats at #1 again, that they'll switch Demon Slayer back to the biggest screen and IMAX in particular. Being bumped from the biggest screen at most/all locations has a huge effect on the total seating number.

Reply to them with this image:



This doesn't exactly confirm a release through March, but the collaboration end-date is a strong indication that this film is planned to play for quite some time (at least up til then, minimum), so even if the numbers slow either due to COVID influence (not being seen yet), or from theaters going back to 50% capacity on the weekends and holidays (not announced yet), it will continue to post numbers regardless for some time still.

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train - Daily Performance Tracker

10/16 - Fri.: ¥1,268,724,700 ($12.0 million) / 910,507
10/17 - Sat.: ¥1,701,723,350 ($16.2 million) / 1,270,234
10/18 - Sun.: ¥1,652,669,400 ($15.7 million) / 1,239,752
10/19 - Mon.: ¥735,000,000 ($7.0 million) / 545,000
10/20 - Tues.: ¥545,000,000 ($5.1 million) / 395,000
10/21 - Wed.: ¥635,000,000 ($6.0 million) / 505,000
10/22 - Thur.: ¥465,000,000 ($4.5 million) / 340,000
10/23 - Fri.: ¥700,000,000 ($6.7 million) / 510,000
10/24 - Sat.: ¥1,500,944,600 ($14.3 million) / 1,115,182
10/25 - Sun.: ¥1,540,504,150 ($14.7 million) / 1,157,654
10/26 - Mon.: ¥620,000,000 ($5.9 million) / 460,000
10/27 - Tues.: ¥410,000,000 ($3.9 million) / 300,000
10/28 - Wed.: ¥575,000,000 ($5.5 million) / 430,000
10/29 - Thur.: ¥390,000,000 ($3.7 million) / 285,000
10/30 - Fri.: ¥555,000,000 ($5.3 million) / 405,000
10/31 - Sat.: ¥1,212,312,550 ($11.6 million) / 887,893
11/01 - Sun.: ¥1,286,354,600 ($12.3 million) / 1,140,390 *Discount Day*
11/02 - Mon: ¥820,000,000 ($7.8 million) / 605,000 *Holiday Boosted*
11/03 - Tues.: ¥1,185,000,000 ($11.3 million) / 900,000 *Holiday*
11/04 - Wed.: ¥350,000,000 ($3.3 million) / 260,000
11/05 - Thur.: ¥230,000,000 ($2.2 million) / 170,000
11/06 - Fri.: ¥325,000,000 ($3.1 million) / 240,000
11/07 - Sat.: ¥863,827,750 ($8.3 million) / 628,614
11/08 - Sun.: ¥909,098,150 ($8.8 million) / 667,179
11/09 - Mon.: ¥315,000,000 ($3.0 million) / 230,000
11/10 - Tues.: ¥220,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 160,000
11/11 - Wed.: ¥295,000,000 ($2.8 million) / 230,000
11/12 - Thur.: ¥200,000,000 ($1.9 million) / 145,000
11/13 - Fri.: ¥310,000,000 ($3.0 million) / 225,000
11/14 - Sat.: ¥795,343,500 ($7.6 million) / 611,418
11/15 - Sun.: ¥726,313,550 ($6.9 million) / 535,986
11/16 - Mon.: ¥265,000,000 ($2.5 million) / 195,000 *est.*
11/17 - Tues.: ¥165,000,000 ($1.6 million) / 120,000 *est.*
11/18 - Wed.: ¥240,000,000 ($2.3 million) / 185,000 *est.*
11/19 - Thur.: ¥165,000,000 ($1.6 million) / 120,000 *est.*

35-Day Cumulative Total: ¥24,184,291,050 ($230.4 million) / 18,125,285 *est.*

Note: Mon.-Fri. are estimates, therefore adding up each day won't equal the actual total.

So I finally saw the film and I can tell you the final fight (ironically outside of Mugen Train) is amazing and the end in itself is heartbreaking. Nezuko has next to no role in the movie. The animation of Mugen Train and its demon isn't as great but the story moves at brisk pace and its able to capture the tension, emotions, thrills needed from this story.

Glad you liked it, Jack. I'd like to discuss the film (and this arc in the story in general) more, but it's hard to do without posting spoilers (and does anyone really want post after post of spoiler tags?).

I feel like most of us have either read the manga to know what happens in the film, but I also know there are some anime-only viewers here, so out of respect for them, I'd suggest using spoiler tags talking about the movie or events in the movie. I'd like to have a more open discussion about the film here, too. Maybe a review thread in Everyone's A Critic?

But seriously, all the anime-viewers should read ahead, especially if you really enjoyed the anime as spoilers are growing increasingly hard to avoid. You only need to read volumes 7 and 8, which is 20 chapters or less. It'd take maybe an hour, probably less. And the film will almost certainly be even better than the manga (as season one of the anime was) since ufotable has been excellent in adapting (and improving upon) the manga so far.

Given its record-breaking phenomenon status, I would be very surprised if it ended its run after only 5 months. If I recall, Spirited Away and Your Name were both in theaters for close to a year (although with a low theater count in the final months).

Fastest Films to 5 Million Admissions:


Fastest Films to 10 Million Admissions:


Fastest Films to 15 Million Admissions:


Fastest Films to 20 Million Admissions:
44/45 Days - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (2020) *Projected*
113 Days - Spirited Away (2001)
165 Days - Frozen (2014)

Demon Slayer might have a small chance of surpassing ¥25 billion by Saturday, right ?

It could hit 30 billion faster than Spirited Away hit 20 billion...