This 97% Rotten Tomatoes Anime Movie Just Earned a Spot on a Major Box Office List

Last week the box office numbers indicated that DanDaDan was close to a threshold. This past weekend, with the compilation movie DanDaDan: Evil Eye debuting in more countries, the franchise broke new records and continued to make history in the domestic earnings. The new movie wrapped up the weekend with $ 5.5 million earned in the U.S., making it officially five times more profitable than the franchise’s previous movie, DanDaDan: First Encounter.

With the new number, DanDaDan: Evil Eye also managed to fly past two of the highest-rated My Hero Academia movies. Last year, My Hero Academia: You’re Next was able to make $5 million domestically, and now that DanDaDan: Evil Eye surpassed it, the franchise already ranks among the 25 highest-earning Japanese anime movies ever in the U.S. If it manages to bring in more than 6.8 million, DanDaDan will eliminate legendary titles like Studio Ghibli‘s Princess Mononoke from the list.

The number is even more impressive when you factor in that DanDaDan: Evil Eye isn’t even a movie per se. The project stitches together the first three episodes from Season 2 of the show, meaning that those who didn’t want or couldn’t go to theaters will still be able to see what happens when the season premieres. A direct continuation of the Season 1 finale, DanDaDan: Evil Eye chronicles what happens to Momo (voiced by Shion Wakayama in the original Japanese and by Abby Trott in the English dub), Okarun (Natsuki Hanae/Aj Beckles), Jiji (Kaito Ishikawa/Aleks Le) and Turbo Granny (Mayumi Tanaka/Barbara Goodson) when they decide to investigate a haunted house.

What Are The Highest-Grossing Anime Movies In America?

No matter what happens and what franchise goes to theaters, no title could this day take the crown of Pokémon: The First Movie — Mewtwo Strikes Back. In 1999, the anime movie grossed a whopping $ 85.7 million, a huge number for a time when Western audiences hardly showed up to check out Japanese movies in cinemas. Pokémon was only slightly threatened almost 22 years later, when Demon Slayer: Mugen Train shot up the charts and became one of the best-performing Japanese titles ever. In the U.S., the movie made over $49.5 million, while globally it made over half a billion dollars.

Other titles among the best-ranking anime in the U.S. include Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero ($38M), Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie ($19.7M), One Piece Film: Red ($12.7M), and Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning masterpiece Spirited Away ($10M). While DanDaDan is certainly a popular franchise, it still needs to fire up its fanbase in order to outperform some anime classics.

DanDaDan: Evil Eye is playing in theaters. Season 2 of the anime series debuts on July 3.