‘Demon Slayer’ leads to the highest opening weekend for an Anime movie in India!
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle released in India on September 12, 2025 and has stormed the Indian box office, setting new records for an anime release. It has the highest opening weekend for an Anime / Animation of all time, and surpassed the lifetime collections of all Anime films in just 1 day.
It’s also the second-highest weekend for any International film in 2025.
Friday: 12.25 Cr (14.95 Gross)
Saturday: 13.05 Cr (15.95 Gross)
Sunday: 13.63 Cr (16.55 Gross)
Total: 38.93 Cr Nett (47.45 Gross)
The widest release of any anime film in the past covered close to 120 cities in India. With the rise in popularity and demand for Demon Slayer, the film released in cites where no other anime movie had been released in the past. Demon Slayer was in cinemas in close to 600 cities, almost 480 new cities that had never seen a theatrical release of an anime movie.
The film was made widely available across the country in multiple languages — Japanese, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and English — ensuring accessibility for both dedicated anime fans and mainstream audiences alike. This multilingual approach significantly boosted awareness and broadened the audience base beyond core anime enthusiasts.
When tickets went live a week prior to release, the film was made available in more than 750 screens across India. To meet with the growing demand from fans every hour, Sony Pictures Releasing International, the distributors of the film eventually released it in more than 1900 screens.
The film has become such a phenomenon in India that multiplexes are going beyond their standard programming to meet demand, with round-the-clock shows, including 5 AM screenings—a first for any film in 2025.
In a breakthrough move, Demon Slayer also made its way into smaller cinemas and single screens across tier-2 and tier-3 cities, many of which traditionally do not program anime or animation films. Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll foresaw this demand and urged smaller exhibitors to open the film.
This bold step paid off, as these cinemas reported strong occupancy levels and enthusiastic audience response, underlining the fandom for this brand in India. The combination of the extraordinary content, language localization and wide theatrical access allowed Demon Slayer to transcend its core audience base, positioning it as a mainstream entertainment experience for Indian audiences.
This marks a watershed moment for anime in India, cementing Demon Slayer as a mainstream box office force.
By Keerti Kadam