The horror community paid attention when Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions announced a new film release this year. Him tells the story of a celebrated football player training the next big star, but the young athlete soon discovers his dream is turning into a troubling experience. However, Marlon Wayans’ project faced a significant challenge due to strong competition from Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. With the Ufotable film already becoming the highest-grossing anime movie ever, star Marlon Wayans isn’t pleased with the Demon Slayer team claiming the number one position.
During a recent interview promoting his new film, Wayans didn’t hold back when talking about the first installment of Demon Slayer’s Infinity Castle trilogy. He exclaimed, “Can I say it? F anime! We came in at number two! Him was first! F anime!” He continued, explaining he faced tough competition, saying, “Him came out that same week against whatever it was… Demon Slayer! I want to wax your beard off your face!” Amusingly, after sharing his honest opinion about the success of the Demon Slayer Corps, Wayans’ co-star, Tyriq Withers, pulled him aside to say, “You can’t disrespect anime.” Wayans probably shouldn’t be too upset about losing to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, though, considering the anime movie has already outperformed several major 2025 blockbusters at the box office, including Superman, Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Thunderbolts, among others.
Tanjiro is Him
In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Crunchyroll’s CEO expressed surprise at how well Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle performed. Although the series is consistently popular, the level of success took the CEO by surprise. He explained, “We understood this franchise was massive, and fans clearly loved it and would go to see it with friends. We also anticipated the high-quality animation from Ufotable and our colleagues at Aniplex. We were confident the film would be exceptional. The only real surprise was the sheer number of viewers during the opening weekend. We didn’t foresee reaching $70 million in just three days. We now expect many fans will watch it multiple times-the key question is how often and how many people will return.”
I’ve been watching the anime world change, and the success of Demon Slayer has really been a turning point. For the last three or four years, I’ve felt that anime fandom has moved beyond being a niche interest – it’s now huge and mainstream. What the movie did was provide concrete proof of this, giving us a historical comparison point. At Crunchyroll, we’ve seen the data and research showing just how big and widespread anime has become, and we could compare it to other shows on our platform. But Infinity Castle’s success is the perfect way to show this to the wider entertainment industry, because it’s happening at the box office, where we have a century of data to compare against. It’s now impossible to deny just how massive anime has become.”
What are your thoughts on Marlon Wayans’ strong criticism of the Demon Slayer Corps? Share your opinion in the comments below and be part of the discussion now in theComicBook Forum!
https://comicbook.com/anime/news/demon-slayer-infinity-castle-review/embed/#
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2025-10-03 22:41