Wait, An Anime Film Is Outselling ‘Avengers: Infinity War’?

When it comes to the box office, Avengers: Infinity War is dominating the world over. The blockbuster made its theatrical debut last week, and millions have rushed to their go-to theater to check it out. Now, it seems like the film may be the fastest to make one billion bucks at the box office, but that does not mean it is selling out everywhere.

No, there is one place in Asia where the Avengers film has competition, and it is coming in the form of an anime detective named Conan.

If you didn’t know, Japan recently saw the 22nd Detective Conan movie go live, and it had its third weekend at the box office between April 28-29. This marked the first weekend Avengers: Infinity War was in the Japan box office as well, and it seems like the anime feature is outselling the Marvel Studios flick in total ticket sales (via Crunchyroll).

If you look at the numbers, Avengers: Infinity War made more money, but it did not sell quite as many tickets as Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer did. The movie sold 453,000 tickets last weekend, a total bumping it above what Avengers sold. The blockbuster came in a close second since Detective Conan outsold it by just over 16,000 tickets.

You may be surprised by the box office twist, but anime fans aren’t too stunned by the turnaround. Detective Conan is a massively popular franchise in Asia, and Tokyo houses its biggest audience. The mystery franchise has enough love abroad to help Detective Conan pump out more than twenty movies, and this latest feature is doing rather well in the box office as a whole.

So far, Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer is the third highest-grossing movie for the franchise. It has earned 4.8 billion yen to date, putting it under Pure Black Nightmare and Crimson Love Letter. In USD, that domestic total lands at about $44 million. Of course, that number has nothing on the domestic total Avengers: Infinity War has in the US. With a single weekend under its belt, the movie has already earned nearly $323 million.

Are you surprised to see Thanos being looked over in lieu of Detective Conan? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!