Crunchyroll to Release ‘Demon Slayer’ in Theaters as Film Trilogy

Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment are giving the blockbuster Demon Slayer anime franchise an appropriately grand finish. The partners revealed Sunday that they will release Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, the last episodes in the hit anime franchise, as a trio of theatrical films in cinemas worldwide. The three-part installment represents the final arc and culmination of the hugely popular award-winning anime shonen series. 

Mugen Train, an earlier film installment in the sprawling Demon Slayer saga, currently holds the record as the highest-grossing anime movie of all time and the highest-grossing Japanese film at the global box office, with over $500 million in total ticket sales.

“Crunchyroll is thrilled to be able to bring this trilogy of films to fans, on the big screen, and it promises to be one of the truly epic and consequential pop-cultural events of our time when it hits theaters,” said Rahul Purini, president of Crunchyroll.

Crunchyroll and SPE have taken worldwide rights to the title, excluding a few Asian territories, including Japan. No release date has been revealed yet.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is based on the manga series by artist Koyoharu Gotoge published under Shueisha’s Jump Comics, consisting of 23 volumes with over 150 million copies in circulation. The action fantasy anime franchise has become a global cultural phenomenon since its debut in 2018. The story begins when Tanjiro Kamado, a boy whose family is killed by a demon, joins the Demon Slayer Corps to turn his younger sister Nezuko back into a human after she is transformed into a demon. 

The various anime TV and film adaptations of Demon Slayer are produced by Tokyo-based production banner Ufotable. The property has been a major player in the ongoing worldwide surge in the popularity of Japanese anime.