1st Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Film Opens at #1, Toi-san Anime Film Debuts at #7
The first Infinite Castle film has topped Mugen Train for Japan's best-ever opening weekend box office (when four-day openings are compared with three-day openings), best opening-day box office (Friday's 1.15 million tickets for 1.64 billion yen or US$11.1 million), and best single-day box office (Sunday's 1.42 million tickets for 2.03 billion yen or US$13.8 million). However, Mugen Train's opening weekend box office was for three days instead of four days. Comparatively, Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train sold 3,424,930 tickets and earned 4,623,117,450 yen (about US$43.85 million at the time) in Japan in its first three days, when it opened in October 2020. The film sold 910,507 tickets and earned over 1,268,724,700 yen (about US$12.03 million at the time) on its opening day alone, making it the highest weekday opening day for Japan at the time. The Mugen Train film became the highest-earning film in Japan ever as of its 73rd day at the box office, and has a listed total earnings in Japan of 40.43 billion yen (about US$272 million by current conversion). The film is the highest-earning Japanese film worldwide of all time, and was the highest-earning film worldwide in 2020. The film was the first non-Hollywood or non-American film to top the yearly box office worldwide since the beginning of cinema over a century ago.Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle - Akaza Sairai is playing on 443 screens (a franchise record) throughout Japan, including IMAX screenings. Outside Japan, Aniplex aims for the new film to play in over 150 countries and regions, which is wider than the franchise's previous world tour of over 145 countries and regions. Haruo Sotozaki is directing the anime at ufotable, and ufotable is also credited for the screenplay. Aimer is performing the song "Taiyō ga Noboranai Sekai" ("A World Where the Sun Never Rises"), and LiSA is performing the song "Zankoku no Yoru ni Kagayake" ("Shine in the Cruel Night").As in the previous short anime, Jel plays both himself and Akane Toi in the film.Mankyū (Pui Pui Molcar the Movie: MOLMAX, Sumikkogurashi – Good to be in the corner, The IDOLM@STER Shiny Colors) directed the film at Seven Arcs, and Yoichi Kato (Aikatsu!, You and Idol Precure♪, Mashin Sōzōden Wataru) co-wrote the script with Jel. Akemi Kobayashi Chi's Sweet Home, (Love After World Domination) designed the characters. The music is credited to STPR MUSIC and AniTone, while Hiromi Mizutani (Non Non Biyori, Food for the Soul) and AniTone are credited for background music. The characters Jel and Toi-san also sing the opening theme song "Meccha Tooi! featuring Jel & Toi-san" (Totally Far Away!), and Yabai T-shirts-ya-san band member Takuya Koyama wrote the song's lyrics and music. The members of Strawberry Prince themselves perform the ending theme song "Mirai no Kimi kara Daijōbu!" (The Future You Will Be Fine).Shochiku is distributing the film in Japan. Jel is involved in the planning, script, storyboards, character design, and voice acting in the film. STPR and Dentsu are on the production committee for the film. Strawberry Prince leader's entertainment persona Nana Mori was also in charge of planning and is executive producing the film.The Toi-san comedy video series of launched with a video on Twitter (now known as X) in April 2019. There are more than 1,000 videos in the series, with over 10 billion total views combined on YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms. The school comedy series centers on a female high school student named Akane Toi, who meets a handsome classmate named Jel on her first day at school.The film opened in Japan on May 9 and debuted at #4. The film sold 92,000 tickets and earned 189,399,380 yen (about US$1.29 million) in its first three days.Takeshi Furuta (Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, Visual Prison) was the film's chief director, and Akiko Seki (Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima, Lycoris Recoil episode director) directed the anime at A-1 Pictures. Chinatsu Kurahana, the original character designer of several Utano☆Princesama films and series, was again credited for the film's original character designs, and Maki Fujioka (Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, Utano☆Princesama Legend Star, Utano☆Princesama Maji LOVE ST☆RISH Tours) was the character designer. Hiroshi Nakajima (Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, Utano☆Princesama Maji LOVE ST☆RISH Tours) was the CG director, Takeshi Ōkawa (Utano☆Princesama Maji LOVE ST☆RISH Tours, NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a) was the sub CG director, and Katsuyoshi Miyajima (Utano☆Princesama Maji LOVE ST☆RISH Tours) was the character modeling director. Elements Garden composed the music.The film opened in Japan on June 27.The film's story is set a few months after the "PRISM.1" tournament, when Shin Ichijo performed without any recollection, and gave his fans the performance he had always wanted to do at "Rose Party," but Shin is still left with a gloomy feeling. To cheer him up, other members of the SePTENTRION unit invited Shin to get into a secretly developed time machine, and go back to the time when the seven of them performed for the first time, the "Dear Crown Christmas Live" concert. The group gets a blast touring other past Prism Shows, including shows performed by the legendary "Big Three."The film stars Japanese model and actor Satsuki Nakayama, who voices the new character Ai Kannazuki, a mysterious young man sent from the Prism World as the final messenger, with the order to eliminate Louis.The characters from the Idol Time PriPara and Pretty Rhythm anime series appear in the film.The new song "Lovepara! -Endless Love,Love-" performed by the SePTENTRION unit, is an insert song of the film. The band perform the ending theme song "Sparkling Days." In addition to the cast reprising roles, Masakazu Hishida returned for the new film as chief director at Tatsunoko Productions and was also credited as Jou Aoba for the script. Other franchise veterans in the staff include character designer Mai Matsuura; series guest character designers Shōji Hara, Hisashi Kawashima, Rie Saitou, Hajime Mitsuda, and Sayaka Toda; CG director Yoshihiro Otobe; original Prism Jump designer Daisuke Katō; and composer Rei Ishizuka. Nobuto Kojima directed the sound, and Avex Film Labels is distributing. King of Prism is a spinoff of the Pretty Rhythm franchise. The first story in Virgin Punk, an original anime series by director Yasuomi Umetsu and animation studio SHAFT, titled "Clockwork Girl," is back in the mini-theater rankings in its fourth weekend ranking at #4.Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), comScore via KOFIC
