Oricon begins to countdown for Rengoku as the 40-billion man.
https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2193457/full/

Demon Slayer jumped. 21,197,750 weekend and 39,973,049,900 Total.

Indeed. Biggest 31st Weekend on record (since 1998). So add that to its mammoth list of records now, too. I'll have the Biggest 31st Weekend Chart posted in a few. It's just Demon Slayer and Your Name. again (Spirited Away returns in Week 32).

And I'll have the Weekend Actuals and Chart Updates posted tomorrow morning/afternoon.

Why did DS jumped? I'm sorry if I missed anything! It's just that SOE extended and the giveaways got postponed.

Biggest Thirty-First Weekends (1998-):

¥21,197,150 ($194,000), +01%, ¥39,973,049,900 ($382.0 million) - Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (2020)
¥18,236,000 ($163,000), -39%, ¥24,786,911,900 ($234.6 million) - Your Name. (2016)

Yet another weekend record! It's likely that Titanic had a bigger 31st weekend, but no data for that weekend exists (to my knowledge). This was very likely the last weekend record Demon Slayer, presumably, was able to claim before playing out next month. So congrats. Spirited Away returned to the top 10 in its 32nd weekend following its post-Oscar/push to ¥30 billion expansion, after a 6 week absence, and has the weekend records from week 32 onward.

No particular reason beyond the holds becoming increasingly better in recent days across the board (Sunday was excellent, Monday was even better, and now Tuesday is looking at increases for several films). Rural prefectures tend to hold better in general compared to urban prefectures, so with them making up a higher share of ticket sales right now due to the SOEs in some of the higher populated areas, we may see some strong holds for the next few weeks.

And since Demon Slayer is usually subject to better holds than most other films, it managed to enjoy a very slight jump this past weekend and may continue that trend for a couple weeks. Also, with the home video release just a month away now, some might be going out to catch it a final time in theaters before buying the movie.

That's a great and surprising record. Didn't think it will get there with stricter restrictions. Amazing that it's breaking records on pretty much a handicap at this point.

Oh okay!!! Thank you so much for explaining it to me! I keep learning new things about the box office and the Japan box office is certainly interesting!

No problem. Japan's box office is both very predictable and very unpredictable. Explanations can usually be had for both scenarios, but typically only after the fact which makes it fun to track.

Also, this should cement Demon Slayer exceeding ¥40 billion over the upcoming weekend. Sunday (23rd) is most probable, but Saturday (22nd) could also happen.

40B by Saturday. I think there's no chance of 41B but will be cool if film manage to do 1 year run and crawl its way to 40.5B. (+10.1B Spirited Away first run).

BO Phenomenon like these have shown to have good strength even after digital release so never say never but I do believe 40.5B will happen since it still have another 2 weeks before the "official" digital release (I am still not letting go of that piracy scam which robbed the movie of 45B total )

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ae185 ... Ic7drEBit0

I just google translated this but it seems season 2 is set for October this year

I am just curious why Japan and Korea have websites to track daily box office data with details such as Mimorin or Koreanfilm (http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/news/bo ... FICE_DAILY), but it is harder to find data about the U.S. market?

Indeed. But more importantly, Fuji TV got the broadcasting rights to the second season (as speculated), meaning it's moving to primetime TV (probably 8pm or 9pm). The second season's ratings are likely going to be enormous, especially the first episode or two as all the people who saw the first season and movie will be tuning in to see what happens next. For those in the unknown, season 2 will begin right where the movie ended (the movie being a bridge between the two seasons).

The reruns of season one and the TV specials on Fuji TV (and another major station) in primetime were pulling in ratings up to 15% (8/9 million viewers) last Fall despite being aired a year prior and being available on home video and streaming services.

Searching up, Japan celebrate Buddha's Birthday some other day but wonder if there's some boost happening due to that. Tuesday up 40% from last week for DS. Just 17M away from 40B now.

Something is wrong with the independent counts, so I wouldn't predict anything off of them (at least today). They have Detective Conan, for example, selling more tickets from 34 theaters versus the 214 theaters at the usual locations. The independent locations are doing better, relatively, than normal since they're mostly located outside of the SOE affected prefectures, but 34 theaters can't be selling as much as 214 theaters.

Top Grossing Films: 2021
Gross ¥ ($) / Admissions [Days In Release] - Film (Distributor)

¥10 billion ↨
¥8.46 billion ($77.5 million) / 5.54 million [70] - Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Toho/Toei/Khara)
¥6.20 billion ($57.2 million) / 4.43 million [31] - Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (Toho)
¥5 billion ↨
¥4.01 billion ($38.1 million) / 2.98 million [E] - New Interpretation Records of the Three Kingdoms (Toho)
¥3.78 billion ($36.3 million) / 2.81 million [E] - Loved Like a Flower Bouquet (Tokyo Theaters, Co./Little More)
¥3 billion ↨
¥2.75 billion ($26.6 million) / 2.24 million [F] - Stand By Me, Doraemon 2 (Toho)
¥2.64 billion ($24.2 million) / 1.88 million [24] - Rurouni Kenshin: The Final Chapter - The Final (Warner Bros.)
¥2.38 billion ($22.9 million) / 1.72 million [E] - Poupelle of Chimney Town (Toho)
¥2.01 billion ($19.1 million) / 1.56 million [E] - The Promised Neverland (Toho)
¥2 billion ↨
¥1.92 billion ($18.3 million) / 0.70 million [E] - Takizawa Kabuki Zero 2020: The Movie (Shochiku)
¥1.90 billion ($18.3 million) / 1.37 million [F] - Gintama: The Final (Warner Bros.)
¥1.77 billion ($17.1 million) / 1.50 million [F] - Pokemon: Coco (Toho)
¥1.23 billion ($11.5 million) / 0.83 million [52] - Monster Hunter (Toho-Towa)
¥1.21 billion ($11.1 million) / 0.88 million [E] - Detective Conan: The Scarlet Alibi (Toho) *Compilation*
¥1.17 billion ($10.8 million) / 0.91 million [59] - Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie (Toho)
¥1 billion ↑
¥845.5 million ($8.0 million) / 0.64 million [E] - Liar x Liar (Asmik Ace)
¥838.7 million ($7.7 million) / 0.66 million [E] - Brave: Gunjyo Senki (Toho)
¥803.1 million ($7.4 million) / 0.60 million [45] - Signal: The Movie (Toho)
¥789.4 million ($7.3 million) / 0.64 million [E] - Tom & Jerry (Warner Bros.)
¥638.1 million ($6.2 million) / 0.49 million [E] - Tengaramon (Giggly Box)
¥635.5 million ($5.8 million) / 0.49 million [E] - Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction (Shochiku)
¥634.9 million ($6.0 million) / 0.47 million [E] - Jukai Village (Toei)
¥546.5 million ($5.2 million) / 0.44 million [E] - Under the Open Sky (Warner Bros.)
¥534.7 million ($5.1 million) / 0.37 million [E] - Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros.)
¥500 million ↑

Legend:
¥10 billion+ (Uber-Blockbuster) / ¥5 billion+ (Blockbuster) / ¥3 billion+ (Hit) / ¥2 billion+ (Respectable) / ¥1 billion+ (Commercial Success)

Top Grossing Films: 2020 (Demon Slayer is still playing)

2 British productions in the TOP-10. I wonder when was the last time, if, any, that it happened.

And Demon Slayer is just ¥26 millions apart from its final and ultimate milestone!!

For the post-40 billion yen achievement, Demon Slayer should aim for 30 million admissions, which is so hard that it can be the final milestone.

With the shutdowns in several provinces and Hollywood being almost absent during the first half of the year I think it was a wise decision to keep the ¥500m benchmark for the yearly charts...

...and I have to bring this up again:

If DS2 manages a similar drop as HP2 vs. HP1 we're talking ¥34b and 25m admissions - No. 2 of all-time in both charts...

I disagree.

Since the end of December, it's just been breaking its own records and achieving new heights. The constant moving of goal posts, while fun to see just how high it can go, has also been exhausting since any possibility of it not reaching some new milestone that is just "more", and has been just more for all of 2021, and created unfounded disappointment. Like, "Oh, it beat the all-time record by ¥10 billion and 5.5 million admissions, but didn't reach 30 million admissions? That's s shame." Except...it's not. At all.

There's got to be an end, which is likely 28 days away now, so there's going to be a milestone that becomes impossible soon enough.

And not to mention, putting itself on the map for film franchise records with just two films showing