We are still only at the very start of the fall portion of the 2025 movie release calendar, but it has already proven to be a season full of box office excitement. Seven days ago, Michael Chaves' The Conjuring: Last Rites arrived in theaters and blew away expectations, the end of the beloved horror series getting an extremely warm welcome, and today, we have another record-breaker to report on. While this past Friday saw a large number of new titles arrive in wide release, Haruo Sotozaki's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle crushed all of its competition on its way to having the best domestic debut for any anime feature.
There were a lot of movies vying for the attention of audiences in the last three days, including Simon Curtis' Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Francis Lawrence's The Long Walk, and Rob Reiner's Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, but none did anywhere close to the business of the new Demon Slayer film. Check out the full Top 10 in the chart below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle* | $70,000,000 | $70,000,000 | N/A | 3,315 |
2. The Conjuring: Last Rites | $26,100,000 | $131,053,000 | 1 | 3,802 |
3. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale* | $18,100,000 | $18,100,000 | N/A | 3,694 |
4. The Long Walk* | $11,500,000 | $11,500,000 | N/A | 2,845 |
5. Toy Story | $3,500,000 | $196,023,233 | N/A | 2,375 |
6. Weapons | $2,725,000 | $147,452,000 | 3 | 2,310 |
7. Hamilton | $2,200,000 | $14,957,531 | 2 | 1,850 |
8. Freakier Friday | $2,100,000 | $91,097,850 | 4 | 2,460 |
9. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues* | $1,674,926 | $1,674,926 | N/A | 1,920 |
10. The Sound Of Music | $1,486,231 | $164,700,517 | N/A | 1,178 |
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Shatters Anime Records As It Rockets To Number One
Some context is important here: prior to this weekend, the previous anime movie record holder for best domestic opening weekend was Kunihiko Yuyama's Pokémon: The First Movie, which caused quite a stir in 1998 when it arrived in theaters at the height of the Pokémon craze and made $31 million. More than a quarter-century later, that record has now been annihilated.
According to early ticket sale figures reported by The Numbers, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle made $70 million in the last three days, which was more than enough to both win the weekend and set new standards regarding the potential of anime features on the big screen.
The first comp that comes to mind is the theatrical performance by Sam Wrench's Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour a couple of years ago. Prior to that release, the biggest debut for a concert movie in cinemas was Bruce Hendricks' Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, and Swift's movie, which made $31.1 million in three days. Then Taylor Swift came along and made $97 million. It was a massive game-changing event, and so is the performance by the new Demon Slayer film.
When the last Demon Slayer feature, Haruo Sotozaki's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba—To the Hashira Training, arrived in February of last year, it placed second at the weekend box office earning $11.5 million. Obviously what we're seeing with Infinity Castle is a new ballgame. While we'll have to see how things change when final numbers are reported, it's presently ranked as the 21st biggest domestic opener of 2025 so far between Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later ($70.4 million) and Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant 2 ($65.5 million).
This isn't the first time in recent years that an anime title has won the weekend box office, as what was previously viewed as a niche audience has generated some significant successes in recent years, but obviously these ticket sales put the new Demon Slayer title in a whole new league. How the industry responds in the months ahead will be an interesting development to watch.
The Conjuring: Last Rites Ticket Sales Plummet Following Massive Opening Weekend
The Conjuring: Last Rites is already a massive hit. It vastly overperformed in its opening weekend – an awesome kick-off to Halloween Season 2025 – and it has already established itself as one of the biggest box office stories of the year. Unfortunately, however, that narrative has been a bit sullied today, as the numbers are in for the new horror movie's second Friday-to-Sunday, and they are not good at all.
In the last three days, The Conjuring: Last Rites made just $26.1 million, which is a staggering 69 percent weekend-to-weekend drop when put next to the $84 million it made during its opening weekend. It's one of the more significant front-loaded blockbuster performances we've seen from a title so far this year, suggesting that those who didn't want to go see it during opening weekend didn't feel compelled to check it out based on word of mouth.
While this result is a tough blow to the legacy of the Conjuring finale, the reality is that few will probably end up paying attention to the steep drop in ticket sales because of how much business the new film has already managed to do. The $26.1 million it made in the last three days brings the feature's domestic total to date up to $131.1 million, which is good enough for second most in the franchise behind only James Wan's The Conjuring (which finished its box office run in summer 2013 making $137.4 million).
Worldwide, things get even more exciting. The Conjuring: Last Rites has proven to be extremely popular overseas, and the movie has now globally made $332.9 million. That now makes it the highest grossing title in the Conjuring series, and the only title in the larger Conjuring Universe that has made more is Corin Hardy's The Nun, which made $366.1 million in 2018. It should go without saying at this point that the 2025 film will go down as franchise champion at the box office.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Ends Franchise With A Whimper, The Long Walk Settles For Fourth Place, And While Spinal Tap II: The End Continues Flops
While The Conjuring: Last Rites was able to generate a lot of excitement with the promise that it would be the last big screen adventure featuring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's Lorraine and Ed Warren, Downton Abbey was not able to drum up as much passion from its fanbase with the arrival of The Grand Finale. The franchise run of Downton Abbey has been even longer, with the TV series first debuting back in 2010, but the new title wasn't able to reach the box office heights of its most successful predecessor (fans will remember that Michael Engler's Downton Abbey film from 2019 debuted earning $31 million domestically).
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale laded for third place, but it did manage to outperform the other two major studio releases from this weekend. For one, the period drama managed to do better business than The Long Walk, which took fourth place this weekend. The new Stephen King adaptation has earned rave reviews. but it has also been sold as a brutal cinematic experience, and there has been thought that its tone might steer audiences away. It finished the weekend earning $11.5 million.
The news for the horror film is vastly better than what happened with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which was lucky to place in the Top 10. While only earning middling buzz, the long-awaited sequel made just $1.7 million since Friday, making just a little over $200,000 more than the re-release of Robert Wise's The Sound Of Music.
Clearly there was a lot of box office tumult this weekend, and things should change significantly again come next Sunday with the arrival of Kogonada's A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and Justin Tipping's HIM. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next week to see how everything shakes out.
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