“Demon Slayer” North America’s first week of box office super “Hero”
the animated film “Demon Slayer: Infinite Train”, which set a box office record in Japan, broke the first weekend box office record for foreign language films in the region after it was released in North America last weekend. “Blade” earned US$19.5 million, surpassing the US$17.8 million achieved by the Chinese film “Hero” in August 2004, and became the highest-grossing non-English film in North America in its first weekend. However, the final box office of “Hero” in North America was 53.71 million U.S. dollars. Whether “Demon Slayer” can surpass it or not, and the North American box office of another Chinese film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is as high as $128 million.
“Demon Slayer” was released in Japan in October 2020. In December, it surpassed Hayao Miyazaki’s classic animation “Spirited Away”, breaking the domestic box office record with a record of US$365 million, and currently the global box office has exceeded 400 million. US dollars, and received 100% freshness and 81 points of high reputation on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic film review sites. However, because the film is rated as R in North America (you must be accompanied by an adult under the age of 17 to watch the film), there is still a gap between its box office and the new film in the United States.
Another new film released in North America last weekend, adapted from the popular game “Mortal Kombat”, topped the list with a $22.5 million first weekend box office. The simultaneous release of the film on streaming platforms and theaters did not reduce the box office, which also shows that the current situation of American audiences returning to theaters is getting better. Last weekend, the total revenue of the top ten films in the North American box office chart reached the best result since March 2020, which shows that the North American film market is recovering rapidly as theaters resume work and vaccines are generally vaccinated.
The new crown epidemic in India is getting worse, and the normal holding of sports events has been severely affected. According to the “India Express” report on the 26th, after the Indian Football Super League ended on March 14th, the teams entered a rest period. Affected by the epidemic, a total of 23 games have been cancelled this season, and clubs have been temporarily prohibited from “taking any action” in the transfer market. The World Cup qualifiers originally scheduled for India to participate in from March to April this year, and the U17 Women’s World Cup hosted by India in November will be postponed. In addition, the Indian Badminton Open and the Billy Jane Gold Cup Women’s Tennis Tournament (formerly the Confederations Cup) in which the Indian team participated have also been cancelled or postponed.
Cricket is the most beloved sport of Indians. Although the Indian Cricket Premier League (IPL) is still in progress, the epidemic prevention requirements stipulate that there can be no spectators in the arena. According to a report by Agence France-Presse on the 26th, even so, Indian cricket star Ravi Handland Ashwin, who currently plays for the Delhi Capitals, decided to take a temporary vacation and withdraw from the league to “assistance his family to fight the epidemic together.” He said on social media, “The family is fighting the new crown epidemic, and I decided to support them at this difficult time.” “If everything goes well, I hope to return to the game.” In addition, Australian foreign aid Andrew Taye, known as the “fastball pitcher”, also decided to leave the Indian Premier League for the time being and returned to Australia via Qatar on the 25th. Reuters said that this decision should be related to India’s current severe epidemic situation. In an interview with Australian media, Tai expressed concern about the epidemic and said that he might not be the only foreign aid to leave the Indian Super League.
As a veteran Indian media, the “New India Express” criticized the IPL’s persistence in holding the number of confirmed cases, calling it a “commercialist failure” and decided to suspend all coverage of the cricket league until “recovered” normal status”. According to the latest data released by the Indian Ministry of Health on the 26th, there were 352991 new confirmed cases and 2812 new deaths in India in a single day, a record high.
ESPN is worried that the suspension of large-scale events may cause damage to the interests of athletes, and at the same time impact the entire sports industry. “India Express” believes that the sports industry in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries may face more severe challenges than India, and it may be difficult for sports events to return to normal in the short term. However, officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports of India said that even if a large number of sports events are postponed or cancelled, income such as athlete allowances will not drop significantly, but the government’s investment in related fields will be reduced.
In the English League Cup final that ended early on the 26th, Beijing time, Manchester City defeated Tottenham Hotspur 1:0 to win the championship. In addition to the two teams, a major highlight of this game is that 8,000 fans appeared in the stands at Wembley Stadium in London-this is the first time in 13 months that there have been two teams in an English football match. Fans (pictured). Laporte, who scored the winning goal in the final, said frankly, “We are very happy that the fans will return and hope that there will be more fans in the future.”
In order to enter Wembley Stadium, fans must be tested for the new crown virus before and after the game. BBC guest and former Premier League player Sutton said frankly that “this is like the return of football”. “When fans cheer in the stands, the players will work harder every time they run.” BBC live commentator Murray also believes that “the players will be infected by the live atmosphere created by the fans, and they are also eager to perform hard in front of the audience, just like all art with a live audience.”
This League Cup final is a warm-up for fans to return to the European arena. Earlier, UEFA announced that this summer’s European Cup will allow fans to enter the game, but the number of restrictions in different cities are different. 9 cities such as London and Rome have announced relevant plans, of which Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is the only target for 100%. In cities where the stadium is open, other cities may open 25% to 50% of the stadium capacity.
As for when the local European leagues will allow the fans on the scene to return, there is no official announcement yet. La Liga previously planned to re-enter the audience in September; in Serie A, the penultimate round of this season’s Inter Milan away game with Juventus’s Italian national derby, Rome derby and the final round of AC Milan and Atlanta may all allow 25 % Of stadium capacity fans enter the stadium. According to the British “Times”, Liverpool and Manchester United are discussing arrangements for two Premier League preseason games this summer, which will be played at Anfield and Old Trafford respectively. The two clubs have only conducted preliminary discussions at present, with the purpose of officially welcoming fans to return to the stadium to watch football next season.
