Demon Slayer: Mugen Train has edged the new Mortal Kombat film from the top weekend box office spot. Based on Koyoharu Gotouge's popular manga series, Demon Slayer has been met with critical acclaim since arriving from Japan, where it recently became the country's highest-grossing film of all time. The animated film's toughest commercial competitor has been Mortal Kombat, the newest feature-length take on the legendary martial arts video game franchise.
Now, Deadline reports that Demon Slayer: Mugen Train has beaten Mortal Kombat to the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office. In their second weekends, the Funimation/Aniplex anime adaptation maxed out at $6.4 million, a hair above the $6.2 million raked in by New Line's fantasy fighting flick. Mortal Kombat still has the lead when it comes to total domestic gross, reaching $34 million as compared to Demon Slayer's $32.2 million. Mortal Kombat has the added distinction of being released simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters, a release strategy shared with Godzilla vs. Kong and Wonder Woman 1984.
By another metric, however, neither film had a weekend worth celebrating. Demon Slayer and Mortal Kombat's second-weekend earnings reflect a drop of -70% and -73%, respectively, from their debuts. What most likely occurred is that each film's somewhat narrow target audiences - generally anime and video game fans - saw Demon Slayer and Mortal Kombat in theaters when they debuted, leaving a relatively sparse crowd for this past weekend. Still, the latter film should be available until mid-May on HBO Max, where it will be joined by the now-streaming season of Mortal Kombat: Conquest. The Demon Slayer franchise will also get another chance to capture the attention of American audiences when the second season of the anime debuts online sometime this summer.
Source: Deadline