Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron had a magical opening weekend in the U.S., shattering previous records for an original anime (not based on known I.P.) with a $12.8 million wide release opening in 2,205 theaters. The film posted $4 million on Saturday, after having a $5.56 million Friday. By doing so, the widely acclaimed movie was able to set many new records for original 2D and anime movies at the U.S. box office. Here are a few of these remarkable achievements.
- The film was the biggest opening for a Miyazaki movie, as well as the highest opening title for both Studio Ghibli and its U.S. distributor GKIDS.
- GKIDS previous record was Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You (2020) which had a $1.8 million opening weekend.
- The Boy and the Heron’ opening Friday numbers beat the record set by Miyazaki’s last film, The Wind Rises, which had a $5.2 million opening day.
- The movie is the only completely foreign production to top the weekend box office in the U.S., since Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero did this in August 2022 with a $21.1 million weekend.
- Miyazaki’s latest movie is the first 2D animated features not based on exisiting IP to top the weekend charts since Disney’s The Princess and the Frog achieved it in 2009 ($24.2 million wide release).
- The Boy and the Heron is the first original anime (not based on existing IP) to ever top the U.S. weekend charts, and the third anime of any kind to do so. )The first two are Pokemon: The First Movie and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero).
Among the other interesting facts and figures about the movie (shared by Deadline.com):
The movie received an A- Cinemascore, 4.5 stars, with 65% recommending it to others. The audience was 54% male, 80% between 18-34, and the 44% between 25 and 34. Diversity demos were 43% Caucasian, 22% Latino and Hispanic, 7% Black, and 27% Asian/other. PLF and Imax are driving 38% of the gross so far. The theater with the highest-grossing numbers was AMC Boston Commons. The film got a 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.
Sunday afternoon awards update: Additionally, the movie picked up another year-end Best Animated Feature of 2023 award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The runner-up was Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams, which won the Best Animated Movie award at the European Film Awards last night.
There were two other animated titles in the weekend top-10 chart: DreamWorks Trolls Band Together proved to be quite a resilient title at the No. 5 spot with an estimated $6.2 million three-day gross, and a total of $83 million for its fourth week in theaters. Sadly, Disney’s Wish continued its weak run at No. 6 with a $1.16 million weekend, and a cume of $49.5 million after opening on Thanksgiving weekend.
There will be more animation competition on Dec. 22nd when Universal/Illumination’s Migration takes wing. The movie opened in several international territories this weekend ahead of its U.S. release. It grossed over $6.5 million in France, Italy, China, Belgium, UAE and Saudi Arabia. The film fared very well in France, where it got great reviews and $2 million in its opening week.
Watch the English-language trailer below:
