Much is made about what tops the box office but look a little further down the charts and you might just discover an unlikely changing of the guard – as new anime movie Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye gets one over on Thunderbolts, just 39 days after the Marvel movie's release.
As flagged by Collider, the June 9 takings of Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye came in at $350,000, gifting it ninth place at the US domestic box office. Thunderbolts, meanwhile, is flagging in 10th, grossing $290,000.
While it's easy to raise eyebrows at another Marvel feature stalling in cinemas, it's more exciting to see the potential anime has with audiences later this year – as is the case with Evil Eye, which bundled the first three episodes of Dan Da Dan season 2 together with the finale of the first season.
Anime has always threatened to break into the mainstream (Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is 2020's highest-grossing movie, beating out the likes of Tenet), but this could be the year it truly gets a firm foothold in theaters.
Later this year, the first part of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and the Chainsaw Man movie will be released in cinemas, each one offering the chance to put anime on the map in Hollywood. Beyond that, Haikyuu VS The Little Giant is spiking its way onto the big screen in the coming years.
It's little wonder, then, that Disney CEO Bob Iger is eager to communicate a philosophy of quality over quantity in Marvel Studios' future.
Speaking on a call with Wall Street analysts, Iger called Thunderbolts the "first and best example" of that new approach.
"In our zeal to flood our streaming platform with more content, we turned to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and had them produce a lot more. We've also learned over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality. Frankly, we've all admitted to ourselves that we lost a little focus by making too much. By consolidating a bit and having Marvel focus much more on their films, we believe it will result in better quality," Iger said.
For more, check out our picks for the best anime you should be watching right now. Then read our interview with Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye co-director Abel Gongora on why he hopes the trend of anime movies releasing in cinemas continues.
