Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train is the highest-grossing film in Japanese movie history. Now, the movie is headed to US theaters. With an R-rating.
Released last fall, the animated feature became a box office juggernaut, surpassing the previous earnings king Spirited Away. As Deadline reports, the movie made $100 million at the Japanese box office in just ten days. Even with the pandemic, people went to see it—all kinds of folks, too, young, old, you name it. The movie captured the Japanese public’s imagination.
But now, with advance tickets going on sale next month, the movie is getting an R-rated release in the US for “violence and bloody images.” The anime is, make no mistake, violent. But in comparison, it’s PG-12 in Japan (the country’s version of PG-13).
But perhaps the rating doesn’t matter for the US audience? Maybe American moviegoers are still staying away from theaters because of the pandemic and digital was always where the picture was going to find its audience outside Japan.
Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train will be in US theaters on April 23 with a digital release to follow on June 22.