Japan’s 2025 box office was dominated by the outsized success of two local films, the animated franchise sequel Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle and the surprise live-action hit Kokuho, according to figures from Eiren on the top 10 films of the year from December 1, 2024, to November 30, 2025.
Infinity Castle, the latest film in the television and cinematic adaptation of the manga by Koyoharu Gotouge, was expected to earn big—its predecessor, 2020’s Mugen Train, is Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time. Although Infinity Castle, which is the first of three films planned to conclude studio Ufotable’s Demon Slayer adaptation, did not quite surpass the previous film, it grossed $248.7m (¥38.9bn) in its home market, making it comfortably Japan’s second-highest-grossing film of all time.
Furthermore, due to its success outside Japan, Infinity Castle passed Mugen Train to become Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time worldwide with a gross of over $720m. The film is still in cinemas in Japan, coming in at number 10 on the first weekend of 2026. It is eligible for the best animated feature category at the Oscars.
Top 10, Japan (Dec 1 2024 - Nov 30 2025)
| Rank | Title (origin) | Distributor | Total box office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (Jap) | Toho/Aniplex | $248.7m* |
| 2 | Kokuho (Jap) | Toho | $121m* |
| 3 | Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback (Jap) | Toho | $94m |
| 4 | Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc (Jap) | Toho | $64.9m* |
| 5 | Cells at Work! (Jap) | Warner Bros | $40.6m |
| 6 | Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (US) | Towa Pictures | $33.6m |
| 7 | Tokyo MER the Movie: Nankai Mission (Jap) | Toho | $33.6m |
| 8 | Moana 2 (US) | Disney | $33m |
| 9 | Exit 8 (Jap) | Toho | $32.9m |
| 10 | Jurassic World Rebirth (US) | Towa Pictures | $31.2m |
* Still on release
Source: Eiren
Meanwhile, Kokuho, a three-hour epic centered around kabuki actors, has grossed a total of $121m (¥18.9bn). It debuted on June 6 and ended its opening weekend with $2.36m (¥346m). It then began an upward climb, earning more each subsequent weekend for over a month. On November 25, it officially supplanted 2003’s Bayside Shakedown 2 as Japan’s highest-grossing homegrown live-action film of all time.
The film is fourth in Japan’s box office top 10 as of the January 2-4, 2026 weekend. It is Japan’s entry for the international Oscar, for which it has been shortlisted. It is also shortlisted for makeup and hairstyling.
In third and fourth place were two more local anime features: In third was Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback, the latest entry in the annual film franchise that has been running since 1997, with $94m (¥14.66bn). This marks the second-highest box office return for the franchise, below 2024’s The Million-dollar Pentagram ($101m/¥15.8bn). In fourth was Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc, which surpassed $64m (¥10bn) during the final weekend of 2025. The two films are now Japan’s 19th and 49th highest-grossing films of all time, respectively.
US films fared better at the Japanese box office than in 2024, when the only non-Japanese films to crack the top 10 were the animated features Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4. In 2025, the top 10 included Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Moana 2, and Jurassic World Rebirth.
The fifth highest-grossing film of the year was the December 2024 release Cells At Work!, a live-action adaptation of the biology-based manga by Akane Shimizu. The seventh biggest film was Tokyo MER the Movie: Nankai Mission, the latest entry in a television and film series about emergency responders.
The ninth highest-grossing film was Exit 8, the adaptation of a hit indie horror video game that debuted out of competition at Cannes. Released in December 2025 (and therefore officially a 2026 box office entry), Disney’s Zootopia 2 has so far grossed $68.4m (¥10.7bn), and is currently Japan’s 45th highest-grossing film of all time
The full figures for 2025 will be released by Japan’s Motion Picture Producers Association (Eiren) in late January.
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