On Sept. 12, the highly anticipated film “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” was first shown in American movie theaters across the country. Despite the movie premiering on July 18 in Japan, American fans came out to the theaters in full force. Grossing an estimated $70 million in its first weekend according to Comscore, the film shatters the record for the highest grossing anime film with the previous record holder being the 1999 film, “Pokémon: The First Movie,” which racked in $31 million upon release.
However, the incredible success of the “Demon Slayer” series in the U.S. didn’t occur simply overnight, rather it’s part of a recent growing interest of anime across the country. With anime convention attendee numbers increasing and more anime films appearing in American theaters, anime has never been more popular in the U.S.
The story of “Demon Slayer” follows the protagonist Tanjiro Kamado, who joins the Demon Slayer Corps, an organization with the sole goal of eradicating demons who terrorize and slaughter humans. Throughout the story, Kamado has to overcome his fears and learn things about himself in order to improve his skills and face each increasingly difficult fight that comes his way. Along his journey, Kamado experiences happiness and grief as he makes new friends and is forced to watch those around him suffer.
Spanning four TV seasons and two movies since 2019, “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” marks the latest installment in the series. The series has become known for its beautifully animated fight scenes and emotional storytelling. “Demon Slayer” has been highly praised for its fight scenes, which seem to increase in intensity with each passing battle. Furthermore, the series is also known for its moving character backstories and moments of character growth. These elements have been instrumental in the popularity of the “Demon Slayer” series and its increasing success.
In addition to “Demon Slayer,” the anime industry as a whole has been riding a massive popularity wave in recent years. Distributor of “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” in the U.S. and anime streaming service Crunchyroll can be attributed to part of the current popularity of anime in America. The streaming service was acquired by Sony in Aug. 2021 for $1.175 billion and has gone on to grow to over 17 million subscribers as of Mar. 31, 2025. While other streaming services occasionally have anime for streaming, none can compare to the extensive library Crunchyroll provides. Crunchyroll is inescapable in the anime community and can be commonly seen at anime conventions such as Anime Expo.
With more fans than ever before watching anime in the U.S., the attendance of anime-related events around the country has seen a significant rise in popularity. Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in North America, has seen attendance skyrocket in the past decade. Held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center, an event that had about 260,700 turnstile visitors in 2015 has grown to a massive estimated 410,000 turnstile visitors at Anime Expo 2025.
This increased popularity has caught the attention of large animation studios, resulting in many having their own panels to discuss the future of shows and what fans can expect from them going forward. In addition to the staff from these studios, voice actors from the shows make special appearances at these events, discussing their thoughts on the shows they’ve worked on and sometimes performing live dubs from famous scenes. The industry panels of Anime Expo have become a staple of the event and a reason for many to attend each year.
At Anime Expo 2024, thousands of fans eagerly lined up for the “Demon Slayer” fifth anniversary panel hosted by Aniplex. This is the event where the fans were able to learn about the upcoming “Infinity Castle” movie and how the final arc would span across three movies instead of TV seasons. Panels like these are significant in creating hype and talk about the film and series.
The popularity of anime can also be seen in American theaters with distributor, GKids, bringing many old and new anime films to the U.S. This includes films such as “The End of Evangelion,” “Perfect Blue,” “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” and more. Ultimately what GKids has been most known for is the creation of what they call “Studio Ghibli Fest.”
Starting in 2017, “Studio Ghibli Fest” is a yearly rerun of past Studio Ghibli films in theaters across the U.S. The event’s lineup includes some of the animation studio’s most popular works such as “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.” This yearly event has enabled new and old fans to relive some of the most famous animated films to come out of Japan how they were meant to be enjoyed—in a movie theater.
Beyond the scope of anime, GKids has also brought other live action Japanese films to American theaters. Some of these films include a new 4K version of “Shin Godzilla,” “Linda Linda Linda” and “LOVE & POP.” With so many diverse series under their belt, Gkids has been able to give many older Japanese films their official American debut in theaters to audiences who might have not seen these films otherwise.