On top of garnering enthusiastic critical reviews and eager audiences selling out its theatrical engagements through GKIDS (despite hardly any promotion for the film), Hayao Miyazaki’s latest and perhaps last animated feature The Boy and the Heron has come out of the weekend with two major box-office achievements.
Not only has the pic hit nine figures worldwide ($109.9 million), but the touching fantasy-adventure from Studio Ghibli has become the highest-grossing U.S. release for an original (non-franchise) anime feature ($23.14M domestic). THe film is also Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s highest grossing film released in N. America.
Heron pulls ahead of previous Ghibli originals The Secret World of Arrietty (2012, $19.M), directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and Miyazaki’s Ponyo (2009, $15.1M) into the U.S. all-time anime Top 10. Other top films hail from global hit franchises including Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball and Pokémon.
The Boy and the Heron opened Stateside on Friday, December 8 in 2,205 theaters (since widened to 2,325) to a record-setting No. 1 debut ($13M). The film held on at No. 3 this frame despite a 57% drop, taking in $5.5M in North American theaters (about $2,370 per screen).
Moviegoers can find more information and nearby screening locations at theboyandtheheron.com.
Anime Top 10 by Domestic Box Office
- Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back — $85,744,662 (1999)
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train — $49,505,008 (2021)
- Pokémon the Movie 2000 — $43,758,684 (2000)
- Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero — $38,112,140 (2022)
- Jujutsu Kaisen 0 — $34,542,754 (2022)
- Dragon Ball Super: Broly — $30,712,119 (2019)
- The Boy and the Heron — $23,488,788 as of 12/18/23
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie – Pyramid of Light — $19,765,868 (2004)
- The Secret World of Arrietty — $19,202,743 (2012)
- Pokémon 3 the Movie: Spell of the Unknown — $17,052,128 (2001)
[Source: BoxOfficeMojo]
