Box Office: Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Soars to Record $12.8M U.S. Opening

Acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki‘s Japanese film The Boy and the Heron flew to a record-breaking $12.8 million opening, making it the first original anime title in history to top the North American box office chart.

The whimsical movie wisely chose to open on a weekend when there were no new wide releases from the major Hollywood studios. The first and second weekends of December are generally quiet as the studios prepare to unwrap their big Christmas films. (This year, the year-end holiday action gets underway next weekend when Warner Bros. opens Wonka, although it is debuting in select markets overseas this weekend.)

The Boy and the Heron film shattered other records as well, including already becoming Miyazaki’s top-grossing film domestically after earning $5.6 million on Friday from 2,205 theaters, not adjusted for inflation. His previous best, 2013’s The Wind Rises earned $5.2 million in its entire North American run.

The film was fueled by younger adults, with 80 percent of the audience between the ages of 18 and 34, including 44 percent between ages 25 and 34. It earned an A- CinemaScore.

The Boy and the Heron also claims the biggest domestic opening for a Studio Ghibli film and will mark the biggest bow ever for GKIDS, the film’s U.S. distributor. It’s the first foreign production to top the North American chart this year.

Miyazaki’s movie — which has earned north of $85 million in Japan — had a high-profile presence on the fall film festival circuit, including becoming the first animated title to open the Toronto Film Festival.

Coming in at No. 2 was Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes with a projected $9 million to $10 million from 3,665 locations in its fourth outing. The film has now earned a pleasing $126.3 million domestically.

Japanese monster pic Godzilla Minus One placed third place in its second weekend with $8 million to $9 million from 2,450 cinemas. (No one can remember another time when two Japanese titles landed in the top five at the North American box office.)

Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls Band Together held at No. 4 with an estimated weekend haul of $6.2 million from 3,451 theaters for a domestic total of $83.1 million.

Disney’s Wish and AMC Theatres’ Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé found themselves in a close race for No. 5, with both currently pacing to earn $5 million to $5.5 million. The final order will be determined Monday morning.

Beyoncé‘s concert fell off steeply after opening to No. 1 last weekend and could suffer a drop of as much as 74 percent. The pic is playing in 2,542 locations, while Wish is booked in 3,450 cinemas.

Elsewhere, Bleecker Street’s Waitress: The Musical opened in 1,214 locations. The film, based on a live stage recording of the 2015 play of the same name, placed No. 9 with and estimated $3.2 million.

At the specialty box office, Yorgos Lanthimos‘ dark comedy Poor Things did rich business as it opened in nine cinemas. The Victorian era-set pic, starring Emma Stone scored a per-theater average of $72,000, the average of the fall season and the third best of the year as Searchlight Pictures ramps up the film’s awards campaign.

Poor Things, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, went on to be named one of the 10 best films of the year by both the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review.

More to come.

This story was originally published Dec. 9 at 8:50 a.m.