How Demon Slayer's Movie Success Could Create A Bonus Cartoon Win

The Demon Slayer movie’s outstanding success is opening studio doors for the creators of anime and cartoon movies aimed at an older audience.

How Demon Slayer's Movie Success Could Create A Bonus Cartoon Win

By exceeding all box office expectations, the Demon Slayer movie opens up unique opportunities for the makers of anime and other cartoon films. In the Demon Slayer movie, Tanjiro Kamado and his sister Nezuko battle the evil Enmu on the Mugen Train. But demons aren’t the only adversaries anime heroes face. There is prejudice, too: an ingrained belief that cartoons aimed at an older market cannot achieve widespread success. With the triumph of the Demon Slayer movie, Enmu might not be the only one crumbling. Its success can banish those negative preconceptions and usher in a golden age for cartoon movies, too.

In the movie business, money talks. The bottom line for greenlighting a movie is whether it will make money. Two fallacies cause studios much trepidation about whether a cartoon movie can be a theatrical success. The first mistaken idea is that audiences find animation targeted at an older audience unusual. The second is that there isn’t a precedent for a successful cartoon theatrical release that didn’t cater to a younger audience. While neither of these deeply ingrained ideas is valid, they influence the decisions made by studio executives. But the Demon Slayer movie may finally lay such outdated beliefs to rest.

The Demon Slayer movie’s success, and that of other anime hits, can help pave the way for more experimentation with cartoon movies. Even the most hard-headed studio number-cruncher can now see a market for sophisticated animation that goes beyond child-focused themes and reaches an older audience. Perhaps most importantly for the future of anime and other cartoon releases, the Demon Slayer movie became the highest-grossing R-rated animated film in history. It’s a clear demonstration that cartoon and anime movies aimed at an older market can be money-makers.

Worldwide, the Demon Slayer movie grossed more than $504 million on the back of over 41 million ticket sales and shot to the top of the charts faster than a runaway Mugen Train. As the highest-grossing film of 2020, it became the first movie produced outside of Hollywood to top the annual box office and broke multiple records. Demon Slayer is the highest-grossing anime film ever made, and even more than that, it is the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time.

Thanks to the Demon Slayer movie, and the recent wealth of other successful anime films, studio misconceptions have been proved wrong. This culture change is a massive win for the fans and creators of experimental cartoons and anime. The film’s achievements have not gone unnoticed by studio bosses, who will be keen to replicate its success. There will be greater boldness and artistic freedom from studios down the line now that the way is open for more anime classics to come to the silver screen.