The Boy and the Heron Takes a Record Domestic Opening

 

The Boy and the Heron Takes a Record Domestic Opening

It’s been a great year for underrated and unexpected titles at the box office. While a 12.8M opening may seem small in comparison to the franchise blockbusters of previous years, it represents massive support for an animation piece opening in cinemas in the US- and the momentum is only growing. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyers with Blake & Wang P.A., shares the great news.




                                            Brandon Blake

Biggest North American Opening

Hailing from Studio Ghibli and the greatly esteemed mind of animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron took a total of 12.8M from theaters in its opening weekend, including a very strong $4M debut Saturday- the dynamic duo’s best results in the North American market yet.

 

This was despite an overall rather soft second weekend in December that saw total takings of around $72.8M for all titles. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is also a 93% boost on the same weekend last year, and a 66% increase on the second frame of 2021, too.

 

Ironically, but perhaps fittingly, this success teamed up with Godzilla Minus One to leave almost a full third of ticket sales in the hands of Japanese titles.

Upcoming Juggernauts

In addition to justly giving a fantastic animated title its moment in the sun, this will add some appealing cumulative amounts to the December box office takings overall. With The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes managing to hold firm, if not quite at anticipated levels, it is hoped that these small-scale but noticeable successes will be enough to let major releases like Aquaman 2, Wonka, and the new The Color Purple power us over the year-end finish line with a strong box office showing.

 

While the hoped-for $9B 2023 box office still rests on some higher-than-average numbers for the last few releases of this year, any strong showing at the December box office this year will help us to finish out an exciting and unpredictable year on a high note- and that should spread some much-needed seasonal joy to the whole entertainment industry.

 

 

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