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On 5ch’s “Live Anything Goes” board (なんでも実況G), it became a hot topic that the film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle Arc Chapter 1 had reached ¥40.24 billion at the box office, climbing to 3rd place all-time domestically. That figure surpasses Spirited Away’s ¥31.68 billion, and posters shared the latest box office ranking chart in the thread. Discussion ranged widely — predictions for the next chapter’s box office (opinions split from ¥20 billion to over ¥30 billion), the impact of the COVID pandemic and the Hollywood strikes on audience turnout, and comparisons with the bonus-goods sales tactics of classic Ghibli films — turning into a debate that went well beyond simple number comparisons.
What people said
Went to see it with my girlfriend back then, all excited, but afterward we agreed it was kind of underwhelming.
Ever since then I figured I don't need to force myself to watch Ghibli movies.
I kinda think it's the Princess Mononoke effect too.
Mononoke's the more interesting movie.
Can it hit ¥20 billion?
Around ¥14 billion.
The one with zero bonus items was Titanic.
It's less about the item itself and more about whether you get to brag about having the bonus.
Spirited Away's bonus was brutal, wasn't it —
something like 24 different designs handed out at random.
Well, once you start saying that, it's the same as the baseball fans on nanJ arguing over whose team is better.
There's no way it flops.
Nobody's saying it, but honestly the Akaza fight was the peak of the Infinity Castle arc, so it's a lock it's all downhill from here.
Hitting ¥20 billion would be a win at this point, seriously.
Just you wait — I'm gonna rip into it mercilessly at "God Cabaret."
COVID's over, the strikes are over, Hollywood's back to normal, so it's just not happening anymore.
The second Demon Slayer movie had nothing to do with COVID, what are you even talking about?
Can't you see I wrote "strikes"?
If Hollywood were really having that much impact, Chiikawa would be flopping too.
I'd guess it can still hit around ¥10 billion.
Though that's still a massive drop compared to last time.
Box office numbers are way too dependent on the era.
The number of theaters was different back then too, and you used to be able to watch the same ticket multiple times.
When I think "Ghibli classics," it's those plus Kiki's Delivery Service.
Everything else is just extras.
Seriously? nanJ posters are the worst.
Did they beat Doma?
Up to Doma's fight against Shinobu.
Next up: Doma and the Older Brother.
It'll easily hit ¥30 billion.
That's exactly why you physically can't secure enough seats.
That number was just a lucky break from back when there were fewer competing films around.
They'll just make sure seats get secured properly.
They know the demand is there.
That would violate antitrust law.
How would it violate it? Explain it to me.
If Toho and the like shut other companies out, that counts as a "refusal to deal."
#1 ¥58.34 billion ONE PIECE series
#2 ¥40.75 billion Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Arc
#3 ¥40.24 billion Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc Chapter 1
#4 ¥31.68 billion Spirited Away
#5 ¥27.77 billion Titanic
#6 ¥25.50 billion Frozen
#7 ¥25.17 billion Your Name.
#8 ¥21.46 billion Princess Mononoke
#9 ¥20.83 billion Kokuho (National Treasure)
#10 ¥20.30 billion Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Off-chart ¥4.16 billion Demon Slayer: The Upper Ranks Assemble, and to the Swordsmith Village
Off-chart ¥2.31 billion Demon Slayer: A Miracle of Bonds, and to the Hashira Training
#1 ¥169.60 billion Demon Slayer — 2 films all-time
#2 ¥162.24 billion Detective Conan — 27 films all-time
#3 ¥144.69 billion Doraemon — 46 films
#4 ¥138.83 billion Hayao Miyazaki — 14 films all-time
#5 ¥77.28 billion Dragon Ball — 22 films all-time
#6 ¥70.27 billion ONE PIECE — 15 films all-time
#7 ¥54.69 billion Makoto Shinkai — 8 films all-time
#8 ¥50.59 billion Crayon Shin-chan — 33 films all-time
Pulling that number off a compilation film is monstrous, as always.
Wow, Kokuho ended up doing that well? Had no idea.
It's not like it's splitting the pie with Kamen Rider or Super Sentai or anything.
Can't shake the feeling that Western action movies all blur together.
People are probably just sick of Marvel stuff by now.
Most folks are like "how long is this gonna keep going?"
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Domestic Japanese box office figures are based on numbers released by Kogyo Tsushinsha (the box office reporting body), tallied as cumulative attendance and revenue since a film’s release. The figure cited in the thread — “¥169.6 billion combined across Demon Slayer’s two all-time franchise entries” — is a total across multiple films, separate from the single-film box office rankings, and it’s easy to confuse with the ¥40.24 billion figure for Chapter 1 alone, so some caution is warranted. The thread also debated whether theaters “monopolizing” screening slots could violate antitrust law, but seat allocation is largely shaped by the business customs of theaters and distributors, and isn’t something that can simply be judged black-and-white as a legal matter. The fact that Ghibli films’ box office totals look low compared to recent blockbusters is also influenced by the smaller number of theaters at the time of their release and by the different exhibition practices of an era before assigned-seat screenings — reading it as a straightforward measure of relative popularity risks being misleading.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Live Anything Goes, なんでも実況G) thread “[Image] Spirited Away: “My name is Haku — the ¥30.8 billion man standing in Demon Slayer’s way”“.
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