We’ve seen a number of great counterprogramming examples in recent years when it comes to the Hollywood release schedule. Two titles with very different target audiences arrive in theaters on the same weekend, and the hope is that as each inspires significant ticket sales while catering to specific movie-goers, the whole industry gets a boost. The biggest success story is obviously Barbenheimer, which generated its own big screen phenomenon a couple years ago… but it doesn’t always work as, as evidenced this weekend.
Justin Tipping’s HIM and Kogonada’s A Big Bold Beautiful Journey couldn’t be more different as cinematic exercises, with the former being a surreal, nightmarish horror film and the latter being a sweet, romantic fantasy, but what they now share in common in addition to a release date is underwhelming box office numbers. Both features arrived in theaters this weekend hoping to bring a wide assortment of film-lovers to cinemas, but neither managed to generate any hype at all – leaving Haruo Sotozaki’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle to win the domestic box office again (despite a crazy weekend-to-weekend fall). Check out the Top 10 results in the chart below and join me after for analysis.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle Repeats At Number One Despite Plummeting Ticket Sales
Since theaters reopened in 2021, the movie industry has seen a number of significant success stories for anime movies at the box office – with some standout titles including Haruo Sotozaki’s Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train in April 2021 and Tetsuro Kodama’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in August 2022. Those titles managed to rank high domestically the first weekend they arrived, showing that there was a big audience for the material… but the films have demonstrated issues when it comes to audience retention.
This weekend, we saw that issue pop up again with Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle – as shown in figures reported by The Numbers.
Seven days ago, I reported about the new anime film having a rather staggering debut on the big screen, breaking records as it managed to earn $70.6 million. There is no denying that is a big deal, as that made it the tenth biggest debut for a movie in the United States and Canada in 2025 so far (ahead of the $64 million made by Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), but here is the problem: people evidently weren’t much interested in seeing it a second time, and non-fans weren’t convinced to buy a ticket based on buzz. The end result is that the new Demon Slayer sequel only made $17.3 million in the last three days, which is a rough 75 percent fall.
The extra bad news is that, as noted, this is not a rare thing. In April 2021, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train experienced a 70 drop in ticket sales weekend-to-weekend. In August 2022, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero experienced a 78 percent decline. It’s a clear pattern.
The obvious silver lining here is that Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle made so much money last weekend that the drop won’t make too much of an impact on its big screen legacy. After all, that $17.3 million earned domestically means that it has become the latest title in 2025 to join the nine-figure club, which only has 14 other members. It has outgrossed major Hollywood releases like Nisha Ganatra’s Freakier Friday and Marc Webb’s Snow White.
But those numbers are actually tiny compared to the business that the film has been doing overseas. $104.7 million is a lot from the United States and Canada, but it has made $450.3 million from outside of those two countries, which equates to $555 million earned worldwide thus far. That means is it presently the ninth highest grossing blockbuster of the year, having now made more than Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is now starting its exit out of theaters after making $519.3 million.
Where things go from here in the industry will be exciting to watch.
HIM and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Underwhelm In Their Opening Weekends
While the win for Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has been fun to watch (the drop in second weekend numbers notwithstanding), the performances by HIM and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey in the last three days have been less enjoyable. The combination of Halloween season and star power suggested that the two titles might find popularity at the box office, but ticket sales show that things didn’t turn out as hoped.
We’ve seen a lot of horror do well in recent month, with some standout blockbusters including Zach Cregger’s Weapons and Michael Chaves’ The Conjuring: Last Rites, but HIM is not a title that is going to be remembered as a win for the genre in 2025. The release was lent the clout of Jordan Peele’s name, as the terrifying football-centric title has him credited as a producer, but an underwhelming response from critics saw the movie only make $13.5 million this weekend and settle for second place.(per Variety, it was made with a $27 million budget).
Circumstances are far worse for A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. The title is noteworthy because it is the first movie in which Margot Robbie has been featured since the monster box office success of Barbie in 2023… but neither that bit of trivia nor having Colin Farrell as a co-star helped matters this weekend. The magical romance only managed to make $3.5 million in the last three days and had to settle for sixth place behind Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk.