2025’s Biggest Movie Isn’t From Hollywood: Demon Slayer Makes History

Thought that headline about anime owning 2025 was just hype? Nope. This year really did belong to animation from Japan and China, while Hollywood stood off to the side watching Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Ne Zha 2 run the table.

The one-two punch: Ne Zha 2 and Infinity Castle

Let’s start with the numbers that made studios sweat. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle blew past $768 million worldwide (basically $768.9M) and out-earned a bunch of giant studio tentpoles stacked with famous directors and household-name heroes.

Then there’s Ne Zha 2, which didn’t just perform — it detonated. The Chinese animated sequel soared to roughly $2.2 billion globally, taking the top spot for the year. The two biggest trend drivers of 2025 weren’t Marvel, DC, or Fast & Furious. They were Japanese anime and Chinese animation. Nobody in Hollywood had that on their bingo card.

For Demon Slayer fans, this was the big-screen payoff they’ve been waiting on since Mugen Train stunned the world. Infinity Castle gives Tanjiro, the Hashira, Muzan, Akaza — the whole rogues’ gallery — the scale and spectacle they deserve. The fights are massive, the emotion lands hard, and the animation is the kind of craft that makes you ask how humans pulled it off in the first place.

Ufotable’s flex

Ufotable’s Digital Imaging Department chief Yuichi Terao put a point on it in an interview (via The Ankler x Letterboxd), saying that off-the-shelf tech can’t replicate what his team does.

'What we are doing, neither of them could possibly create.'

And the box office backed him up — the hype was real, it delivered, and it kept delivering for months. For the stat heads: Ne Zha 2 sits at an IMDb 8.0/10 with about $2.15B reported; Infinity Castle sits around 8.5/10 with roughly $768.9M.

Hollywood’s heavyweights got clipped

This is where it gets awkward for the usual suspects. F1 did $631.5M worldwide. Superman is at $616.6M. Mission: Impossible 8 pulled in $598.7M. All of them lost to an anime film reportedly made for around $20 million. When the storytelling hits and the craftsmanship is there, you don’t need a nine-figure ad blitz — just a film people can’t stop talking about. Infinity Castle also has the energy, emotion, and even some of the Mugen Train-era nostalgia fans were asking for.

The 2025 scoreboard

Culture Crave posted the year’s global box office standings on December 7, 2025. Here’s where things landed:

• Ne Zha 2 — $2.2B
• Lilo & Stitch — $1.04B
• Minecraft — $958M
• Zootopia 2 — $916M
• Jurassic World 4 — $869M
• Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle — $769M
• How to Train Your Dragon — $636M
• F1 — $631.5M
• Superman — $616.6M

This wasn’t a blip — it was a wave

It wasn’t just those two. Chainsaw Man Reze Arc has racked up roughly $150M so far. Jujutsu Kaisen Execution Arc has pulled about $40M so far. Even smaller anime titles kept drawing crowds. The appetite is global: raw emotion, character growth, meticulous animation. Meanwhile, audiences are burned out on reboot roulette, multiverse word salad, and samey CGI fireworks.

Against that backdrop, these movies feel crafted, not assembled. And the numbers back it up. Infinity Castle didn’t just hang with Hollywood’s biggest; it beat a bunch of them without breaking a sweat.

The takeaway

2025 wasn’t the year Hollywood fell. It was the year anime broke big. Infinity Castle stamped its passport into world cinema history, and Ne Zha 2 doubled down on the idea that the next wave of mega-hits is coming out of Asia. Hollywood can adjust, or keep playing catch-up. Anime is not niche anymore — it’s headlining.

So how much higher do you think Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle can climb from here? Drop your prediction.