Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
“The Boy and the Heron” opened with $12.8 million over the weekend to lead all films in North America, the first Japanese anime film to top the domestic charts here, according to industry estimates released Sunday.
The first feature in 10 years from Hayao Miyazaki, who won an Academy Award for “Spirited Away” in 2003 and was nominated in 2006 for “Howl’s Moving Castle” and in 2014 for “The Wind Rises,” “The Boy and the Heron” surpassed “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” which grossed $9.4 million in its fourth weekend in theaters, according to Comscore.
“The Boy and the Heron” (Japanese title: “Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka” or “How Do You Live?”), released in the U.S. by GKIDS, received more good news this week when it was announced as a Golden Globe nominee for best animated feature along with another Japanese anime, Makoto Shinkai’s “Suzume.”
Third place went to “Godzilla Minus One,” the latest Japanese entry in the long-running kaiju franchise, which took in $8.3 million Friday through Sunday in its second weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters. Takashi Yamazaki’s film, set in postwar Japan, is a callback to the first “Godzilla,” which was released in 1954.
“Godzilla Minus One” made over $14.36 million as of Dec. 5, surpassing the record for highest-grossing Japanese live-action film in the U.S., a title previously held by “The Adventures of Milo and Otis,” released in Japan and the U.S. in 1986 and 1989, respectively.
“It makes me happy that it was none other than Godzilla to have broken the record that had long gone unbeaten,” said Yamazaki.
Ryunosuke Kamiki, who starred in “Godzilla Minus One,” said, “It’s like a dream that the film is also being watched by so many people in America!”
“Trolls Band Together” was fourth with $6.2 million in its fourth weekend, followed by “Wish,” which made $5.3 million in its third weekend. Disney’s “Wish” is also a Golden Globe nominee for best animated feature along with “Elemental,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” dropped sharply from its $21 million opening weekend and took in $5 million for sixth place.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases, as estimated by Comscore, were “Napoleon” ($4.2 million), “Waitress: The Musical” ($3.2 million), “Animal” ($2.2 million) and “The Shift” ($2.1 million).
The weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $71 million. The year-to-date total is $8.476 billion — an increase of 23% over the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.