Physical media is not dead! That is, if it plays Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Mugen Train. In Japan, the movie’s disc release is drumming up some serious business.
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According to Mainichi Shimbun (via ANN), the home release moved 804,079 discs on the first day this Wednesday, breaking this year’s one-week Blu-ray/DVD sales record in Japan. Out of that, 268,490 copies were limited-edition Blu-rays, while another 201,895 were standard Blu-rays. The breakdown for DVDs on day one was 115,499 limited-edition copies and another 218,195 standard DVDs. The limited-edition version comes with exclusive illustrations, a soundtrack CD, and a DVD with extra bonuses.
On the second day, another 173,146 Blu-rays and DVDs were sold, while the third day moved another 96,945 discs. In the first three days, that’s a grand total of 1,074,170 copies.
These days selling a million of any DVD or Blu-ray seems like a huge deal. But for Demon Slayer, huge sales numbers have become the norm. People cannot get enough of it. The anime even energized a Japanese canned coffee company!
The biggest selling manga of last year was Demon Slayer, which dominated the Oricon sales charts in Japan. The animated feature film has eclipsed Spirited Away at the Japanese box office (something that Hayao Miyazaki was asked about when he was picking up the trash) and is now the most successful Japanese film ever worldwide. As ANN points out, the Demon Slayer anime is also the first non-Hollywood or non-American film to reach the top spot at the annual worldwide box office since the start of motion pictures—over a hundred years ago. These are truly historic numbers.
And seeing the movie version is, as Kotaku’s own Ash Parrish pointed out, the perfect post-vaccination celebration.