Here’s some good news to see out another dismal year for cinemas. Anime films dominate the 2021 box-office ranking in Japan, a market famously friendly toward animation.
The three highest-grossing features in the country this year are all animated, according to data reported by film site Eiga.com. They are Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, with 10.28 billion yen (USD$89.3M); Case Closed: Scarlet Bullet, with 7.65 billion yen; and Belle, with 6.53 billion yen.
These figures are correct as of December 12, but there is little chance of another film displacing them before the year is out. A lock on the top three is a remarkable result for animation — it’s only the second time this has happened since 2000.