Crunchyroll Planning ‘Demon Slayer – Infinity Castle’ Awards Season Push

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle has become a once-unthinkable box office phenomenon. With $555 million worldwide after this past weekend, the film has surpassed every Japanese release before it – animated or otherwise, redefining the scale of anime at the global box office. More than just dollar signs, its distributor, Crunchyroll, sees potential gold in the film’s future.

Crunchyroll CEO Rahul Purini says the milestone is less a surprise and more a vindication. “We knew the brand was huge,” he told The Hollywood Reporter this week. “What this movie did was show the world — in box office terms, with a century of benchmarks — that anime is no longer niche. It’s mainstream and gigantic.” Box office exit polls underscored that point, with a fandom spanning ethnic groups and age ranges, from Gen Alpha to parents in their 40s and 50s.

Purini points to Infinity Castle as a case study in Sony’s growing anime machine. Since acquiring Crunchyroll in 2020, Sony has fused its distribution (Sony Pictures), production (Aniplex, Ufotable), and fan engagement platforms into what he calls a “one plus one equals three” approach. The result: an anime release with Pixar-level reach. “Sony Pictures has over 100 years of experience taking Hollywood stories global — and now the company can do that for Japanese anime too,” he notes.

The movie is the first entry in a planned trilogy, with Purini hinting at urgency to deliver sequels while leveraging the theatrical success across Crunchyroll’s streaming, merchandise, events, and music operations.

With Infinity Castle already standing out as one of the year’s biggest animated films at the U.S. box office, the executive sees award season looming. Wrapping up the THR interview, Purini concluded:

We think the movie is incredible — the animation, the story, the quality on all fronts. So yes, the fans absolutely deserve for the movie to be considered for awards. We’ll do our part to make sure it gets the right level of support to be considered in all of the categories it could be eligible for.

For anime fans and longtime industry believers, the lesson is clear: an art form that was once relegated to the margins has become a core pillar of the global entertainment business, and Crunchyroll intends to stay at the forefront of that shift.