Anime fans in India are in for a treat this weekend, with the release of ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle’, today in cinemas across the country. The film’s release comes just after the Indian audiences helped make the animated film ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’ a blockbuster hit.
Box office predictions
The Japanese anime is now gearing up to storm theatres this weekend, and deliver record-breaking numbers on its opening day. Early box office reports on sacnilk, pointing to a double-digit opening for the film.Advance ticket sales have already crossed an estimated Rs 10 crore gross, making it the highest-grossing non-Hollywood opener in India. The report goes on to state that the numbers could reach as high as Rs 15 crore gross.
Anime wave sweeps India
With this, the numbers are on par with the collections earned by ‘Suzume’ and ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’, both of which grossed around Rs 10 crore during their India debuts. With the added craze around this film, the makers have reportedly added midnight and early morning show screenings.
Record-breaking start at box office
Ticket booking apps have also recorded huge advance ticket sales, of over 500,000 tickets sold across the weekend. Interestingly, this advance sale has already outperformed the opening collections of several big-ticket Hollywood releases in India, including ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’, which had a Rs 21 crore opening, and went on to score a Rs 61 crore first week haul at the box office. The dark fantasy action spectacle, is based on the “Infinity Castle” arc of Koyoharu Gotouge’s popular manga series. The film has been directed by Haruo Sotozaki. The movie will release in its original Japanese version, along with dubbed formats in English, and other Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil.