The film was nearly two hours long.
By the time they walked out of the screening room, it was already past five in the evening.
"That was actually pretty good," Akemi Takeda suddenly said.
Yugo Ohara glanced over at her, thinking to himself: So, were you actually here to watch the movie?
He thought for a moment before asking, "This arc continues the story from the first season of the TV series. Did you follow the first season last year too?"
"I didn't at first, but it became really popular later, right? I tried watching it and found it to be pretty good, actually," Akemi replied.
"I see..." Yugo felt a strange sense of disappointment.
Akemi realized something after she finished speaking and let out an "Oh": "Wait, should I have said that I didn't watch it at first, but then specifically started watching it because I knew you liked this anime?"
"I never said I liked this anime. It's just that the other anime at the time felt lackluster, and this one was genuinely better by comparison," Yugo shook his head.
Akemi sighed. "Senior, that's not how you do it."
"Hmm?" Yugo looked puzzled.
"I mean, you're handsome, and you're a nice guy, so why don't girls like you? Now I see why," Akemi said, as if it had just dawned on her.
Yugo was even more confused.
Did he say something wrong just now?
He really hadn't said he liked this animation; that should be fine, right?
How did the conversation suddenly veer into the topic of no girls liking him?
He was puzzled, but before he could ask, his phone suddenly rang. Akemi Takeda took out her phone, glanced at it, answered, and spoke a few brief words to the person on the other end.
After hanging up, Akemi Takeda made an apologetic gesture and said, "Senior, I'm sorry, something has come up at home, and I have to head back right away. I won't be able to have dinner with you tonight. Let's do it another time."
"Alright, you go ahead," Yugo Ohara said, not thinking much of it.
Akemi Takeda waved her hand. "Then I'm off. See you on Monday."
"Yeah, see you on Monday," Yugo Ohara waved back.
After parting ways with Akemi Takeda, Yugo Ohara took out his phone, put on his earphones, and headed toward the bus stop while listening to music.
However, after walking only a few steps, he couldn't help but open a ticket-booking website to check the box office figures for the anime "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train."
He didn't know until he checked, but after looking, he was stunned: the theatrical film "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" had been out for only two days—not even two full days yet—and its box office had already exceeded 2.3 billion yen, breaking the opening week record set seven years ago by "Your Name."
The key is that back when Your Name was released on May 1st, it took five days, until May 5th, for its cumulative box office to just exceed 2 billion [yen], whereas Demon Slayer: Mugen Train has now surpassed 2.3 billion [yen] in just over a day.
There is still more than a day left to count for the opening week's box office; just how explosive will this box office figure be by midnight on Sunday?
4 billion [yen]?
It will undoubtedly reach that. After all, he just finished watching this theatrical film, and the quality is genuinely good. The word-of-mouth will surely not be bad, which won't dampen the audience's enthusiasm for watching it; in fact, the audience's enthusiasm will only grow higher in the coming days, and the single-day box office will be even higher.
Judging from the current trend, he doesn't even think it's impossible for the opening week's box office to reach 4.5 billion [yen].
Too strong!
This is more than just breaking a record; it's practically set to far surpass the previous one.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel excited. He quickly used his phone to post on the internet: "The box office for Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is invincible! It hasn't even finished its second day and it already has 2.3 billion [yen] in box office. At this rate, it will probably break the box office record of Spirited Away with ease."
Not long after the post was published, comments started appearing underneath:
"You're only just realizing this?"
"It can only be described as a box-office explosion."
"We could already see hints of it from that previous ticket-buying frenzy, but I still didn't expect the box office for this theatrical film to be this strong. It really shocked me."
"What shocks me even more is that back in '14, Lin Zhiyan said he wanted to make an anime that would surpass the box office of Spirited Away, and he actually went and did it. Does that guy really have a pair of mystic eyes that can see into the future?"
"I wouldn't accept anyone other than him being given the title of 'God of Anime'."
"Don't be so quick. It's possible for the box office to surpass Spirited Away right now, but what if the pandemic gets serious again and we go back into nationwide lockdown? Wouldn't it fail to break Spirited Away's record then?"
"There is indeed a possibility of the pandemic getting worse again, but there won't be another nationwide lockdown, at least not this year. It feels like breaking Spirited Away's record is a foregone conclusion now; it's just a matter of what kind of new record it will set."
Although not everyone watching Demon Slayer: Mugen Train follows box office figures, quite a few people are aware that this theatrical film has already broken the previous opening week record.
Some timely online media outlets had been keeping a close eye on these numbers and had prepared their articles well in advance, releasing various reports the moment the record was broken.
Then, when the official opening week box office figures were released at midnight on the 18th, many were still shocked to find that the animation had raked in 4.86 billion yen—just shy of 5 billion, but very close.
Reaching nearly 5 billion yen in just three days of release is something that has never happened before in the history of Japanese cinema.
For most movies, whether animated or live-action, it is difficult to even reach 500 million yen, let alone a final box office of 5 billion. While films with a box office of over 5 billion yen in Japan aren't exactly rare, there certainly aren't many of them.
It is truly unbelievable that "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" has already neared 5 billion in just three days.
Those who hadn't been paying much attention to the box office of "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" for the first two or three days, or those who weren't even interested in the film at all, even suspected they had misread the news when they received the notifications.
It's too exaggerated, to the point of seeming magical.
However, after confirming it wasn't a mistake and that the opening week box office really was that high, those who were originally uninterested couldn't help but become curious.
"Heavenly Descent"
Some who hadn't even watched the first season of the TV series specifically went out to buy a set of Blu-rays or manga to catch up on what they had missed.
Some who had already watched "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" once couldn't help but want to see it again.
As a result, even after the first week ended, the audience's enthusiasm for the film did not wane at all; in fact, it increased.
Please Support me by becoming my patreon member and get 15+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon