Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Crushes Global Box Office, Ranks 7th Worldwide in 2025
The global film market for 2025 saw the Japanese animation industry make a massive impact, led by the staggering success of the first film in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle trilogy.
The action-fantasy feature secured the seventh top-grossing film spot worldwide, collecting an incredible US$718,491,762 at the global box office, according to figures released by Box Office Mojo.
This performance also ranked it as the third highest-grossing animated film globally for the year.
The film also performed strongly in the American market, where it was the second top-grossing animated film, ranking eighteenth overall in the U.S. with total earnings of US$134,487,320.
This success highlights the increasing appetite for Japanese animation internationally.
Several other anime features also broke into the top 100 films worldwide.
These included Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback, which landed at number twenty-six with US$166,061,012 in global earnings, despite not being screened in the U.S. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc was close behind at number twenty-seven, having earned US$158,289,386.
Rounding out the major anime contributions were Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution at number seventy-one with US$41,401,792, and the animated feature KPop Demon Hunters at number ninety-eight, earning US$24,619,953 despite a strategy that focused on a Netflix debut followed by limited theatrical showings.
The success was not limited to animation.
Japan’s own Kokuho film, which has now become the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film of all time within Japan, achieved a global ranking of thirty-eight with a total box office of US$119,641,262.
Other notable international live-action films also made the list: The Exit 8, a horror film adaptation of a popular infinite-loop game, ranked seventy-six with $39,003,150, and the Korean webtoon adaptation My Daughter is a Zombie ranked seventy-seven with US$37,891,989.
Neither The Exit 8 nor My Daughter is a Zombie had screenings in the U.S. during the year.
The three highest-grossing films overall for the year were China’s animated Ne Zha 2, Disney’s animated Zootopia 2, and the live-action Lilo & Stitch.
Overall, the global box office in 2025 demonstrated strong recovery and growth, estimated at US$33.5 billion, which represents a twelve percent increase over the previous year, according to Gower Street Analytics.
This momentum was particularly strong in key markets, especially in Japan, which is recognized as the second largest international market after China.
Japan experienced significant local growth, showing a thirty-five percent increase over 2024 in yen terms, and a thirty-three percent increase when measured in U.S. dollars.
Industry analysts at Deadline specifically highlighted animation, and anime in particular, as a “growing medium that is expanding globally and resonates with an underserved audience while also drawing new customers,” confirming its growing importance in global film economics.
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