'Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle' opens to $70M, biggest anime debut, to claim top box office spot

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle” carved out a place in box office history this weekend as the Japanese anime film sliced straight to No. 1 — outpacing the horror sequel “The Conjuring: Last Rites.”

LOS ANGELES — “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle” carved out a place in box office history this weekend as the Japanese anime film sliced straight to No. 1 — outpacing the horror sequel “The Conjuring: Last Rites.”

The Sony-owned Crunchyroll release shattered expectations with a mighty $70 million debut in North America, according to Sunday estimates from Comscore. That haul marks the biggest domestic opening ever for an anime film, surpassing “Pokémon: The First Movie,” which opened with $31 million in 1999.

The film extended its meteoric run, scoring the biggest anime opening of all time with a $132.1 million weekend, according to Comscore. Crunchyroll and Sony rolled it out across North America and 49 international markets, pushing the global total to $177.8 million.

“This performance by this particular film shows the unpredictability of the box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “If we were sitting here, let’s say a month or even a couple of weeks ago, would we be thinking, ‘Wow, a Japanese anime film would be number one at the box office, overperform and bring in $70 million?’ If you predicted that, kudos to you.”

The latest movie is the first in a three-film trilogy that brings the hit Shonen saga to its climactic showdown. The story follows Tanjiro Kamado, a kind-hearted boy who takes up swordsmanship after his family is slaughtered and his sister, Nezuko, is turned into a demon. Together, they fight a supernatural underworld of monstrous foes while clinging to what’s left of their humanity.