What?! I haven't been checking news or anything for the past couple hours while I put together all these charts.

If true, it's even higher than my high range. I'm pretty confident in the admissions, so that means its average ticket price is indeed above average (not surprising, Aniplex release + all IMAX screens in the country being sold out or 90%+ full).

Over ¥5 billion in 3-days would certainly occur. The previous record for fastest to ¥5 billion is 10 or 11 days... have to check.

One friend mentioned the number, asked for confirmation.

I'll go look for it. I can read Japanese well, so navigating 5ch is easy enough. It's just extraordinarily busy there this weekend and cluttered, with over 1,000 posts in the box office thread like every 15 minutes or something since Thursday.

In the meantime, here is beautiful Tokyo Tower, which has been lit up in flame red every night (5pm-midnight) this weekend for Demon Slayer:

That's actually the tokyo skytree But yes, it's beautiful nevertheless.

Watching the series obliterate every manga record this year has been a very weird experience, and now it has done it again with box office. Absolutely insane.

Sorry, I've been awake for 30 hours straight now. ^_^

(So tell me if you see any typos anywhere, too.)

I didn't see any mention of this. But definitely share if the info since it may have managed to slip through the cracks or was just overlooked given the odd time to announce it. It is 2am in Japan, and while everyone is still super active on 5ch still, they probably aren't looking at any news articles if they happened to be released. The discussions have mostly revolved around whether or not, and why, women find male voice actors attractive on voice alone despite not seeing their faces or appearance for the past hour or so. #Japanesemendatingproblems

I'll go look on news outlets.

No problem of course. You should go catch some sleep though, for health, y'know.

I haven't seen any article myself so I don't think an official number has been released.

Yesterday was the most recent Fuji TV broadcast of the anime, and last night's program included episode 19. Last weekend's program earned a very high household rating of 16.7%, which is roughly 9.2 million viewers in the region. For one, that's a lot of potential new fans who could have tuned in last week., caught up on their own this week, and are now seeing the movie this weekend. And it's certainly possible yesterday's broadcast achieved even higher ratings/viewers.

But more importantly for Sunday's box-office, if episode 19 had a similar impact that it did on viewers last year, but to a much wider audience, that could certainly give Sunday an unexpected "boost" (hard to do better than filling 77% of your seats, but small gains are doable, particularly in the morning). Episode 19 was pretty much the start to the social phenomenon the series has become today.

This movie adapting the next story arc following the conclusion of season one of the anime , as opposed to the original story approach most other anime films take, is playing a big role in its success, I believe.

And before Sunday kicks off here later today, here's what we can likely expect:

Morning showings (7am-11am) should perform a fair bit better than Saturday.
Afternoon showings (12pm-4pm) should perform slightly better or on par than Saturday.
Evening showings (5pm-8pm) should perform slightly worse or on par with Saturday.
Night showings (9pm-midnight) should perform a fair bit worse than Saturday.

The key to Sunday matching, or beating, Saturday is to build a decent lead before 5pm, as it'll likely perform worse in the evening/night. At least, this is the typical behavior most films display over the weekend. And most films perform better on Sunday versus Saturday. But matching/beating a 77% sell-rate isn't something most films (ANY FILM) has to contend with either.

Some pre-sales at various Toho locations for Sunday:

X = Sold Out, △ = 20% or fewer remaining, O = 50% or fewer remaining.



Notice that a lot of the morning and afternoon showings are already sold out or almost sold out. That's better than it was performing Saturday morning at these locations. It needs to do similarly as this everywhere to match/beat Saturday. Because if you look at the late showings, specifically after 8pm (20:00), many haven't reached 50% capacity yet. Some of them likely will, we are 16 hours away from them starting, but they're unlikely to reach 80% full or better like the film achieved during those times last night.

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Sunday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Usual Locations (70% of the Market):

07AM - 16,814 (~23,500)...........................08AM - 40,386 (~56,500)
09AM - ........................10AM -
11AM - ........................12PM -
01PM - ........................02PM -
03PM - ........................04PM -
05PM - ........................06PM -
07PM - ........................08PM -
09PM - ........................10PM -
11PM - ........................12AM -
FINAL -

Note: Usual location admissions is the first number (70% of market), while I'm providing a projected overall admissions number in (parenthesis).

Alright, let's get Sunday started. For comparison, Saturday and Friday hourly sales will be listed below each update as such:

********************************************************
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Saturday Cumulative Hourly Sales]


Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Friday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

And United Cinemas has crashed, so morning sales will be impacted somewhat again. Surprising, because this is the first time their servers have done down over the weekend. Aeon Cinemas is surprisingly still up right now.

I wouldn't make any comparisons to Saturday or Friday until 12PM due to all three days suffering from online cinema servers crashing and having to be added manually later on. They were fixed as best as the programmers could at noon the past two days, so hopefully Sunday follows suit.

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Sunday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Usual Locations (70% of the Market):

07AM - 16,814 (~23,500)...........................08AM - 40,386 (~56,500)
09AM - 107,760 (~150,900).......................10AM -
11AM - ...................................12PM -
01PM - ...................................02PM -
03PM - ...................................04PM -
05PM - ...................................06PM -
07PM - ...................................08PM -
09PM - ...................................10PM -
11PM - ...................................12AM -
FINAL -

Note: Usual location admissions is the first number (70% of market), while I'm providing a projected overall admissions number in (parenthesis).

As of 9AM, the sell-rate is at 71.6%.

********************************************************
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Saturday Cumulative Hourly Sales]


Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Friday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Sunday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Usual Locations (70% of the Market):

07AM - 16,814 (~23,500)...........................08AM - 40,386 (~56,500)
09AM - 107,760 (~150,900).......................10AM - 176,866 (~247,600)
11AM - ...................................12PM -
01PM - ...................................02PM -
03PM - ...................................04PM -
05PM - ...................................06PM -
07PM - ...................................08PM -
09PM - ...................................10PM -
11PM - ...................................12AM -
FINAL -

Note: Usual location admissions is the first number (70% of market), while I'm providing a projected overall admissions number in (parenthesis).

As of 10AM, the sell-rate is at 75.8%.

********************************************************
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Saturday Cumulative Hourly Sales]


Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Friday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Sunday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Usual Locations (70% of the Market):

07AM - 16,814 (~23,500)...........................08AM - 40,386 (~56,500)
09AM - 107,760 (~150,900).......................10AM - 176,866 (~247,600)
11AM - 264,877 (~370,800).......................12PM -
01PM - ...................................02PM -
03PM - ...................................04PM -
05PM - ...................................06PM -
07PM - ...................................08PM -
09PM - ...................................10PM -
11PM - ...................................12AM -
FINAL -

Note: Usual location admissions is the first number (70% of market), while I'm providing a projected overall admissions number in (parenthesis).

As of 11AM, the sell-rate is at 79.5%.

********************************************************
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Saturday Cumulative Hourly Sales]


Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Friday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

So far, it's doing what it needs to be doing today to surpass Saturday. Not a guarantee by any means, as the showings after 8/9PM will be a lot weaker, but it's on course to have a big enough lead by then to offset the night showing losses.

And, of course, it's absolutely making the Sunday performances of every other film ever embarrassing in comparison. Not saying every other film ever had bad openings, it's just that Demon Slayer is going to more than double the previous record today (and probably beat it before even 1PM), and then end up 3-4x higher than past major releases for the day. Just like it did on Saturday.

No signs of slowing down. I really think with COVID-19 this will finally surpass Spirited Away in admissions and total.

As its opening weekend is becoming clearer hour by hour now that we're into Sunday, it could reach ¥30 billion ($285 million) and challenge Spirited Away for the all-time crown with just a multiplier of 8. Not saying this casually, but a multiplier of 8 isn't an overly impressive (and just considered good or above-average) multiplier in itself in Japan.

For now, we can probably expect ¥20 billion ($190 million) as a strong likelihood, which would only require a multiplier of maybe 5.5, maybe even less depending where the opening weekend ends up. A 5.5 multiplier in itself is rather poor in Japan, and sub-par.

Just remember that Japan is a wait-and-see market, and given this unprecedented situation with Demon Slayer, that's going to be more true than ever for awhile, I believe.

There's no competition from Hollywood this Fall or Winter, and while there is a regular amount of local films being released (the Japanese film industry is largely back to normal now), and a few notable films to come that will chip away at it, I don't think anything is going to takeaway from Demon Slayer's audience nor pose a serious threat to its record seating/showtimes. Films that achieve social phenomenon status are rather immune to almost everything (including COVID, apparently).

The previous record opener Yo Kai Watch had 4.8x multiplier, I don't know what is reception of both films, but I will be surprised if this manages that multiplier.

Though no competition can seriously help but thinking more like 4.75x multiple + Friday, which gives 20.5Bn.

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Sunday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Usual Locations (70% of the Market):

07AM - 16,814 (~23,500)...........................08AM - 40,386 (~56,500)
09AM - 107,760 (~150,900).......................10AM - 176,866 (~247,600)
11AM - 264,877 (~370,800).......................12PM - 346,600 (~485,200)
01PM - ...................................02PM -
03PM - ...................................04PM -
05PM - ...................................06PM -
07PM - ...................................08PM -
09PM - ...................................10PM -
11PM - ...................................12AM -
FINAL -

Note: Usual location admissions is the first number (70% of market), while I'm providing a projected overall admissions number in (parenthesis).

As of 11AM, the sell-rate is at 81.3%.

********************************************************
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Saturday Cumulative Hourly Sales]


Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Friday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Sunday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

Usual Locations (70% of the Market):

07AM - 16,814 (~23,500)...........................08AM - 40,386 (~56,500)
09AM - 107,760 (~150,900).......................10AM - 176,866 (~247,600)
11AM - 264,877 (~370,800).......................12PM - 346,600 (~485,200)
01PM - 438,526 (~613,900)........................02PM -
03PM - ...................................04PM -
05PM - ...................................06PM -
07PM - ...................................08PM -
09PM - ...................................10PM -
11PM - ...................................12AM -
FINAL -

Note: Usual location admissions is the first number (70% of market), while I'm providing a projected overall admissions number in (parenthesis).

As of 1PM, the sell-rate is at 82.9%.

********************************************************
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Saturday Cumulative Hourly Sales]


Demon Slayer: Mugen Train [Friday Cumulative Hourly Sales]

...Oh dear. This might actually break its own saturday record...