When it was announced that Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions was releasing a new film this year, the horror world took notice. Him is the story of a football legend who is molding the next generation’s superstar, though the younger athlete begins to realize that his former dream is becoming a nightmare. Unfortunately, the Marlon Wayans project saw quite a road bump thanks to some steady competition in Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. With the Ufotable production already becoming the biggest anime movie of all time, star Marlon Wayans isn’t too happy with the Demon Slayer Corps taking the top spot.
In a recent interview to promote Him, Wayans held nothing back when he discussed the first of Demon Slayer’s Infinity Castle trilogy, “Can I say it? F*** anime! We came at number two! Him first! F*** anime! I was up against it, Him came out that same week against whatever it was… Demon Slayer! I want to wax your beard off your face!” Hilariously, after revealing his real thoughts about the Demon Slayer Corps’ success, Wayans’ co-star Tyriq Withers pulled Marlon aside to say, “You can’t disrespect anime.” Wayans ultimately shouldn’t feel too bad losing to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castlehowever, since the anime movie has already defeated some of 2025’s biggest blockbusters at the box office, including Superman, Fantastic Four: First Stepsand Thunderbolts to name a few.
Tanjiro is Him
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Crunchyroll CEO was stunned by the success of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. While the shonen series has always been popular, this level of success was not something the Chief Executive Officer saw coming, “Well, we knew this brand was huge, and that the IP was something fans loved and would turn out for in large numbers with their friends. We also had a sense of the quality of animation that Ufotable and our partners at Aniplex would produce. Basically, we knew the film was going to be a truly amazing show. If there was anything surprising, it was how many fans turned up that first weekend. We didn’t expect to hit $70 million within the first three days. Now we know there is going to be repeat viewing — the question is just how many times and how many people.”
Purini also dove further into how the success of the Demon Slayer Corps has changed the anime game forever, “I’ve been saying for three or four years now that anime fandom is no longer niche — it’s mainstream and gigantic. What this movie did was show that to the world in a way where there’s a lot of historical context to compare against. At Crunchyroll, we’ve had data and research showing how big and broad anime has become, and we could show it in the context of other shows on our platform. But Infinity Castle’s success is the perfect way to demonstrate this to the broader entertainment world, because it’s happening at the box office, where there are 100 years’ worth of benchmarks. It’s now undeniable how big anime has become.”
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