Japan’s box office climbed 4 percent to a post-pandemic high of $1.5 billion (221.5 billion yen) in 2023, driven again by a strong slate of anime and a steady return to theaters. Hollywood films maintained the same market share of around 31 percent as the previous year, though a very weak yen reduced earnings in dollar terms.
The Japanese currency falling toward the 150-mark against the greenback means that when converted, the annual box office fell from last year’s $1.64 billion even though takings in yen climbed from 213 billion yen. Imported fare (676 films) took a total of $452 million, versus $995 million for 555 domestic productions.
The figures were announced in Tokyo on Tuesday by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, locally referred to as Eiren.
Topping the 2023 box office rankings was The First Slam Dunk, an anime from Toei based on a hit basketball manga with $107 million, followed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($95 million), and the latest anime in the Detective Conan series ($94 million). Those three titles were the only ones to surpass the locally significant 10 billion yen ($68 million) domestic blockbuster benchmark in 2023, though overall takings were second only to the all-time high of $1.77 billion (261 billion yen) in 2019.
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron was in fourth spot, taking $58 million. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One with $37 million was the only other Hollywood movie to make the top 10.
Total admissions were up 2 percent to 155.5 million, with the number of screens up slightly to 3,653.
The unexpected success of Godzilla Minus One in the American market was a hot topic at the announcement event, sparking multiple questions from the local media.
Hiroyasu Matsuoka, CEO of Toho, the studio behind Japan’s most famous monster, said the film had helped group theatrical earnings top 100 billion yen ($680 million) for the first time. Toho also distributes Studio Ghibli films and the Conan series.
“Godzilla Minus One has taken more than $55 million in the United States. It recently became third highest-grossing non-English language film in the US market, overtaking Oscar-winner Parasite and setting multiple records such as the biggest opening weekend for a foreign film,” said Matsuoka. “This has given us great confidence in the potential for our films and IP.”
Asked about the reasons for its success, he added, “We really didn’t think it would be such a big hit, to be honest. As well the high levels of recognition for the Godzilla name, it benefited from less competition on release due to the strike in Hollywood.”
“And the rise of streaming platforms has helped make global audiences more receptive to reading subtitles and watching non-English content,” suggested Matsuoka.
Fumio Yoshimura, CEO of TOEI, also spoke about the strength of anime and his company’s plans to target further expansion in the global market leveraging IP such as its Power Rangers and samurai films.
Renowned Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heronbreaks the filmmaker’s ten-year hiatus since making The Wind Rises. The Boy and the Heron was supposed to be his last ever film, but in true Miyazaki fashion, he has one more film in him. According to Studio Ghibli executive Junichi Nishioka, filmmaker Miyazaki is already working on his next featured film.
Based on a novel of the same name by Genzaburō Yoshino, The Boy and the Heron is now in U.S. theaters after making its theatrical debut in Japan earlier in the year. Here’s where you can watch Miyazaki’s latest, The Boy in the Heron, starring Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, and Gemma Chan, among other notable actors for the English dub voice cast.
Theatrical Release
The Boy and the Heron’s North American release happened on December 6, with a wider release on December 8. You can check your local listings and theaters for showtimes below:
Streaming & Digital Release Date
There’s no official word on when The Boy and the Heron will be released on streaming. However, it’s safe to say that the film should eventually land on Max due to Studio Ghibli’s contract with the streamer. As for a digital release, where viewers can own a copy of the film, there hasn’t yet been an announcement. The digital release date will likely depend on how well the film does in North American markets. However, it’s more than likely that The Boy and the Heron will be available to stream in 2024.
The Boy and the Heron has attracted widespread attention due to the chance that it might be Hayao Miyazaki’s last film, but one interpretation of the movie might mean there’s hope for one more work from the acclaimed director.
In an interview we conducted with the film’s English dub director Michael Sinterniklaas, the illustrious voice actor and director made mention of a theory brought to his attention by Mark Chang, the production manager at NYAV Post’s New York office.
“[D]uring production, Mark Chang — he’s my production manager in our New York Office — he said ‘Wait: When (the Tower Master) presents the blocks to Mahito, there are thirteen, and this is his twelfth movie.’”
The theory does hold water, as the Tower Master does indeed present Mahito 13 blocks in the film which he has used to create the world around them. There are likewise 12 films that Miyazaki has directed with The Boy and The Heron being the 12th of the bunch, meaning there could be a 13th film he wishes to make before he’s done.
It also backs up earlier claims made by Studio Ghibli executive Junichi Nishioka to CBC back in September. During an interview, Nishioka said that Miyazaki is not done making films, and is already working on ideas for his next movie. Miyazaki hasn’t confirmed or denied these statements though, so take all of this with at least a few grains of salt.
Nevertheless, it’s good news for Ghibli fans as many viewers have interpreted The Boy and The Heron as more of a final message from the acclaimed director. Throughout the film, themes of moving on and letting go of what has come and gone are front and center. This is particularly true for the scenes involving the Tower Master, who is an aging creator who no longer has the energy or ability to craft and mold everything that exists around him.
You make your own interpretations by seeing The Boy and The Heron in theaters either subbed or dubbed. For more on all things Ghibli, consider checking out our ranking of every Studio Ghibli movie.
About the author
Keenan McCall
Keenan has been a nerd from an early age, watching anime and playing games for as long as I can remember. Since obtaining a bachelor’s degree in journalism back in 2017, he has written thousands of articles covering gaming, animation, and entertainment topics galore.
If you were to name one of the more influential anime films to come out in the past few years, chances are Michael Sinterniklaas is responsible for its English dub.
Involved in the dubbing industry for decades, he has provided voice work for film and television series in addition to being at the helm of several prominent dubs as a casting and dialogue director. His most notable works in anime range from crafting the English dub for the Oscar-nominated Mirai to voicing in the dub for the global smash hit Your Name.
Past these feats, his company NYAV Post has handled the English dubs for a variety for projects for more than 20 years, ensuring they allow viewers to take in a given work with an interpretation that’s as close to the original creator’s intent as possible.
His latest directorial project, Studio Ghibli‘s The Boy and the Heron, has been of particular note. Not only is it stacked with a star-studded cast, but it is also made by the great Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli; and, rather sadly, it might be the acclaimed director’s final film.
We got the chance to sit down and speak with Sinterniklaas via Zoom about what it was like to direct The Boy and the Heron’s English dub, how he approaches dubbing, and the pressures that come with crafting the English dub for a film made by one of the world’s foremost animators and directors.
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki
Keenan McCall: So obviously the Boy and the Heron has been very well received both critically and by fans, and even commercially. How does it feel to see the film performing this way, and especially because of the dub as most people are pointing out it’s one of the higher quality Ghibli dubs?
Michael Sinterniklaas: It’s actually extraordinary. When you do the work, you’re mostly in a black box, a padded room — literally — and it’s not like doing theater where you get to see an immediate response. So it’s lovely to see that people are taking notice of the work and I’m glad it’s being appreciated.
There’s a lot of consideration about not just dubbing — I’ve had my company NYAV Post now for, oh my god over 20 years — and we’ve always really focused on authenticity and grounding the dubs. Generally speaking, dubs are considered a second tier thing. I don’t disagree entirely, I think a lot of dubs are handled as second tier. It’s a deliverable spec and it’s a secondary language market and it’s got to be done, but not always artfully.
On (The Boy and the Heron), I thought it needed to serve very, very, very authentically Hayao Miyazaki’s original intention. And that I think is being recognized — that we didn’t put our scent on it, you know what I mean?
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki
Keenan McCall: So a really big part of the hype around the movie and why there is particular interest around The Boy and the Hero is the fact that it could be Hayao Miyazaki’s final film. Did you feel that pressure when you were trying to craft the dub and direct the actors to put their all into their performances?
Michael Sinterniklaas: Absolutely. It’s tricky, it’s like going to the Olympics. You get nervous, but you’ve still got to do your best and you can’t let the nerves get in the way. If anything, that helped me dig in deeper and harder, work more weekends and late nights. I’m inclined to do that anyway with no semblance of work life balance, but in this case it was a whole other calling.
I think the last time I felt this way was when I’d worked on Ernest and Celestine. I recorded Lauren Bacall’s last ever performance, and at some point during the edit we were supposed to get her back in for another session and she just wasn’t really able to. When that happened, I remember thinking ‘this could be THE Lauren Bacall’s last ever performance. I need to make sure that every T is crossed and I is dotted and we can present it to (people) in the best way.”
It was like that, except for the entire movie. When I first saw (The Boy and the Heron), I remember halfway through, or a little bit later when you meet the Tower Master, going ‘Oh. I think this is his mic drop moment and he’s saying goodbye.’ And I remember getting really upset, and it meant even more to me.
But really, it manifested more as inspiration. Instead of just straight nerves and ‘Oh no, what do we do?’, it was like ‘No, we MUST do our best.’ You could probably make a whole other behind the scenes anime or Shonen Jump anime about doing your best, to do the best dub. We all felt like it was really important.
And then, at some point (during the dubbing process), he announced ‘Hey, I’m not done. I’m still going to do stuff’, and we were like ‘Oh. Wait, what? That’s great! I would rather you live forever and just keep releasing work.’ But then we were like ‘Maybe he just means shorts for the museum.’
But then, during production, Mark Chang — he’s my production manager in our New York Office — he said ‘Wait: When (the Tower Master) presents the blocks to Mahito, there are thirteen, and this is his twelfth movie.’ It’s crazy. On the one hand, this could be the last, so you care and you dig in. But then it’s better if it’s not, because I want more.
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki
Keenan McCall: You’ve directed English Dubs for quite a few prominent anime directors and animators in the industry; namely, Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda. Would you say there was any sort of different feel or different tones that affected how you crafted the dub for The Boy and the Heron vs. when you were crafting the dubs for Mirai and Your Name?
Michael Sinterniklaas: Absolutely. My background’s in classical theater, so I approach everything with a classical standard. There are a lot of fundamentals that I think are easy to overlook when you’re dubbing because it’s such a technical task. To really ground every moment and really understand where (the characters) are coming from, why are they saying this, all those things are fundamentals.
But going back to classical fundamentals, there’s a voice to Ibson, Bennett, Shakespeare, whatever. And in the case of Makoto Shinkai, he has a different flavor. All of his films leading up to Kimi no Na wa, Your Name, I think they had a melancholy, something slightly more dour. And then in the case of Your Name, he found this hope that married with it and had this really unique vibe all its own.
I really find myself needing to be moved by the original creator’s intent, but also need to find a way to ground every specific moment; but always in service of the spine of the intention of the creator.
In the case of Hayao Miyazaki, he’s revered as the greatest ever, so the tricky thing is he’s able to flow so freely from his unconscious mind that picking up what he’s laying down is so interpretive. So the challenge on this one was to let that inform what I’m doing without imprinting my own interpretation of it. To try and really telegraph what he’s really getting at. But we’ll never know definitively. There’s not going to be a DVD commentary where he’s telling you what everything means.
And that can be really tricky. When I did Mirai — the dub of which got Oscar nominated — I got to speak with Hosoda-san afterward. We had lunch, and I got to ask him some specifics. And he appreciated what I’d noticed about his movie, and in his case I’d found some moments in the animation that I served more completely in the vocal performances. He said he couldn’t get his actors to do certain things that we were able to do with ours.
My cue was seeing his intention in the picture, and these are all visual storytellers. My secret wish is that potentially we’re able to serve their truest intent, even on some moments they couldn’t do on their own. But in the case of Ghibli movies, Hayao Miyazaki’s potentially last film, it’s all about reading between the lines over and over and over again, and living with it and stewing in it and trying to convey all that.
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki
Keenan McCall: What was your proudest moment during the dubbing process?
Michael Sinterniklaas: This kind of goes back to what I was just saying about serving the true intent, and not just what you see and hear. I think dubs can too often be a paint by numbers kind of task, and that’s never been my approach. I really think you need to take the story as a whole and justify the moments to serve that story again. Not just ‘they sound angry, they sound happy’. If you just hear the emotion and try to copy the emotion, that is literally the antithesis of the work. That’s being result-oriented and all the things that are like verboten in the world of acting and directing.
When we had Karen Fukuhara, who I think gives the sweetest performance in anything I think I’ve ever heard, she plays an important role. Because she’s fluent in Japanese, she heard what the original seiyuu was doing and then would give it back to us just like the original. And I remember thinking there’s a little bit more here. Not just to copy the sound, which she was doing impeccably, but to get at the underlying meaning of it. And so we had a sidebar halfway through, and she was able to make it a little bit more her own.
Also, the original seiyuu is I think a singer, so I was like ‘Well, since Karen has musical abilities but is primarily an actor, I don’t want to miss out on what she can bring to this character.’ And once we did that, something opened up. Because she plays a maternal figure, it really locked in. Even now when I watch it, she’s got a few lines in there that choke me up, and it’s like ‘I made these with her. Why do they still affect me like that?’.
I’m really proud of how she anchored that thing. And if I could talk to Hayao Miyazaki about anything, I’d like to ask him if we served his idea of this mother hero properly. Because I think she is both a hero and a mother in every sense of the word. In terms of her strength and her sacrifice and her love. The way she loves Mahito. To me it feels so appropriately Ghibli.
(Her dub) could have gone a very serviceable, perfect way, but I think it really leaps off the screen as its own thing, so I’m really proud of what Karen was able to bring to that.
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki
Keenan McCall: A lot of people tend to say you almost need to watch both a Ghibli film in both the subbed version and the dubbed version whenever possible. Would you say that’s still the case with The Boy and the Heron? And what would you say are the pros of the sub and the pros of the dub?
Michael Sinterniklaas: I think it’s important, and I think it’s great, to watch it both ways. I think it’s important to see it in its original format of course. This is Hayao Miyazaki, he is Hayao Miyazaki. His name is literally an example of ‘It’s a Shakespeare, it’s a Mozart, it’s a Hayao Miyazaki.’ So see everything that he intended in his way.
I do think, however, that if you don’t speak Japanese, it’s a waste to have to read the bottom of the screen when there’s all this impossibly gorgeous museum-grade art flying by your face every second, every 24th of a second. I think you’re missing a lot of the film if you don’t do that.
The other thing, and this is really important I think when we talk about the value of dubs, is that a subtitle is also an interpretation of a translation. There’s translating (the original Japanese), and then you have to decide ‘does this word mean more this or more that? Well, I think it means more this.’ So you’re already going through one person’s filter, whoever the subtitler is. And then, they have to truncate the line so that it’s short enough that you can read it and then they can move on to the next card.
So I think that subtitles can often leave out a lot of key information. Sure, you get to hear the (original) performance, but if you don’t understand the nuance of the language, you’re missing so much information, even if you can hear the emotion of the performance. In that regard, I think dubs can more fully service a film than subtitles can if they’re done properly.
In our case, I think there are some incredible performances from incredible actors. I think we serve it better as a dub than not speaking Japanese and having to look at the bottom of the screen.
I think they both really have value, and people that I talk to have been running back to the theater to see it both ways and having different experiences. I do think it’s relevant that if you don’t speak that language, you need to hear it in a way that will connect with you emotionally. And I think that can do more depending on your relationship to the Japanese language.
But in this case, I would advise everyone to definitely see (The Boy and the Heron) both ways. I think the dub serves it very well. More than most of the other dubs in the pantheon of Ghibli dubs, it doesn’t deviate to entertain. It really holds true to the original intent, and that was our goal the entire way through. And hopefully, that’s what we pulled off.
Image Credit: Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki
Keenan McCall: Is there anything you’d like to add, or anything you’d like to pass along to anyone on the fence about seeing The Boy and the Heron in the dubbed version?
Michael Sinterniklaas: If they’re on the fence about seeing the dub, I would say… If you see it once, you understand that you probably need to see it again anyway. Seeing it in as many different ways as you can helps you receive this film which is an important film. It’s potentially his last film — which I pray that it’s not, because I selfishly want more — but it’s also his most personal, directly personal, film.
So if you care about the studio, if you care about Hayao Miyazaki, then you owe it to yourself to see (The Boy and the Heron) more than once and to see it every possible way you can; in different formats, different languages. I am in France, and I went to see the French dub of it so I could experience it yet again in another way. And I got something else out of it. It’s such a rich film that you’re not going to get it if you see it once. No one gets it seeing it once.
I talked to some of the top film critics in the industry, who I met at a press screening because while I was working on it, I needed to see it again, I needed to see it with other souls around me, I needed to see it big. So even though I’d already seen it a thousand times, I needed to see it in a different way. And I got something out of it. But all these critics were like ‘Yeah, I really understand this creator and this studio, but I don’t understand this movie yet. I need to see it again.’ So I encourage everyone to go on this journey.
The Boy and The Heron is currently screening in theaters worldwide.
About the author
Keenan McCall
Keenan has been a nerd from an early age, watching anime and playing games for as long as I can remember. Since obtaining a bachelor’s degree in journalism back in 2017, he has written thousands of articles covering gaming, animation, and entertainment topics galore.
In defense of English dubs, no one does it better than Studio Ghibli. It’s not a matter of either-or; with the incredible global talents that span the original Japanese voices and the English casts, it just means we get more!
With the release of The Boy and the Heron, which featuresRobert Pattinson’s dedicated vocal bird transformation, we’re looking back at the best Studio Ghibli dubs. When it comes to Hayao Miyazaki’s films, care has always been taken between by the Disney and GKIDS distributors to cast the English roles with incredible talent. It’s no easy feat to perform in sync with animation, let alone in a foreign language, but it helps to have the guidance of directors such as Pixar’s Pete Docter (Howl’s Moving Castle) who approach the task with appropriate reverence. While we understand the importance of subtitles—and we’d never take away from the wonderful work of the original Japanese voice casts—dubs help make the films accessible to more audiences. And as an animation fan, I love dubs because I can bask in the art and storytelling without reading and then revisiting with subtitles. It’s a preference and a gateway for more global animation to travel the world.
Here’s a list of the top 10 English Studio Ghibli dubs we love.
Hayao Miyazaki may be a legend in the film industry, but believe it or not, The Boy and the Heron marks his first number one film at the U.S. box office. Despite having retired numerous times (he’ll never do it), Miyazaki’s latest film has been received as one of his best, and that’s saying something.
Miyazaki has been creating films for decades now, founding Studio Ghibli with fellow director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki. Over the years, Studio Ghibli, with Miyazaki as the key driving force behind it, has produced some of the most fantastic animated stories of all time, with such notable mentions as Princess Mononoke, As the Wind Rises, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (the one that started it all), and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away.
The most recent film from Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron, was released in the States on December 8 and debuted with $12.8 million, according to studio estimates. Sitting behind Miyazaki over the weekend is the still-going-strong The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with $9.4 million, followed by another Japanese entry, Godzilla Minus One pulling in $8.3 million, and Trolls Band Together with $6.2 million, among others.
As reported in the Japanese publication, The Asahi Shimbun, this makes the film the third anime film ever to top the box office in U.S. and Canadian theaters. Of the success, Eric Beckman, founder and chief executive of GKIDS, the North American distributor for Studio Ghibli films, said,
“It’s really a resounding statement for what animation can be. American audiences have been ready for a lot more than what they’ve been getting, and I think this really points to that direction.”
Though Miyazaki’s work is well known in Japan and across Asia, Studio Ghibli has historically had less of an impact in North America, despite being beloved by certain groups and individuals. The film has been played in theaters both featuring the Japanese voice cast with subtitles and with the English dub cast. The latter consists of quite the who’s who of the Hollywood elite.
(Studio Ghibli)
The film was released much earlier in Japan, and despite having no marketing (Ghibli decided to simply let the name “Miyazaki” do the work), it made $56 million. The film has already been hailed as one of the director’s best, with critics responding favorably to the story about a boy who is taken to a fantastical land after the death of his mother, with moments of the film having directly taken inspiration from Miyazaki’s own childhood.
Despite rumors circulating that The Boy and the Heron would be Miyazaki’s swan song (yet again), the studio has confirmed that Miyazaki is back at work once more, with Ghibli executive Junichi Nishioka telling IGN,
Other people say that this might be his last film, but he doesn’t feel that way at all. He is currently working on ideas for a new film. He comes into his office every day and does that. This time, he’s not going to announce his retirement at all. He’s continuing working just as he has always done.
Now we just have to sit and wait to see what the master of animation will create next.
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’sThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakeswith 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.
SUNDAY AM:Refresh for chart and more info GKIDs’ and Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heronposted a $12.8M opening after a near $4M Saturday, giving both studios, and esteemed animated filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki their biggest openings ever in the U.S./Canada marketplace.
While a soft weekend with around $72.8M for all titles, the second weekend of December was +93% over the same period a year ago, +66% over the second frame of the last month of the year in 2021, however, off -38% from pre-Covid 2019’s same weekend ($117.8M), but that’s when Jumanji: Next Level led the box office with a $59.2M.
Imax domestic screens at 291 drew $2.4M for Boy and the Heron, repping a very big 20% of the pic’s opening. Overall PLF and Imax share is 38%. AMC Boston Commons still the movie’s highest grossing take in the U.S. with $63K through yesterday. Diversity demos are 43% Caucasian, 22% Latino, 7% Black, & 27% Asian/other.
Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakescontinues to hold real strong in weekend 4, -33% for $9.4M, and a running total of $135.6M. Updated final domestic is around $160M. This Francis Lawrence directed prequel of the Suzanne Collins novel isn’t going anywhere over the Christmas break when the Warner Bros.’ juggernaut of Wonka, Aquaman 2 and The Color Purple arrives.
AMC’sRenaissance: A Film by Beyoncelost a lot of rings this weekend with an anticipated -76% drop or $5.3M in 5th place.
Bleecker Street is calling $3.2M at 1,214 sites for Waitress the Musical, and rolling Thursday into Friday. The movie is 100% on Rotten Tomatoes critics with audiences nearly agreeing at 97%. The movie is playing best in the East, West & South Central with AMC Lincoln Square its best venue with a running cume of $15K.
POOR THINGS, Emma Stone
Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Searchlight’s Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone starring and produced Poor Things did ring bling with a $72K opening theater average (or 3-day of $644K at nine theaters), the best this autumn has seen so far, and the third best of the year as we told you y’day behind Focus Features’ Asteroid City ($142K) and A24’s Beau Is Afraid ($80K). That theater average opening is also higher than that of Everything Everywhere All at Once which posted $50K per theater from ten cinemas. It pays to wait: you’ll remember that Poor Things was set to launch off its Venice Film Festival world premiere on Sept. 8, but was pushed due to the actors’ strike. Searchlight has always fared better with these movies in early December, particularly when it comes to playing in the zeitgeist of the holiday frame and the awards qualification period.
In early exits polls, Poor Things received an A- CinemaScore. Audiences skewed 56% male, 70% under 35, 62% Caucasian, 17% Hispanic, 14% East Asian/Pacific Islander, 6% Black/African American, with 68% excellent with a 75% definite recommend. More than half the crowd are going to tell their friends to see Poor Things ASAP, describing it as visually interesting (81%), well-acted (79%), funny (69%), different/original (68%), interesting (65%) and entertaining (63%).
Origin
Neon
But wait, that’s not the only movie that was lighting the arthouse space on fire this weekend: NEON’s awards qualifying run of Ava DuVernay’sOriginat two theaters in NY and LA rang up a big $117K opening, for the fourth highest per theater of 2023 with $58,5K behind Asteroid City, Beau Is Afraid, and Poor Things, and ahead of A24’s Past Lives’ $58K). Interesting to note that the limited engagement was supported only by publicity and word-of-mouth stemming from the film’s Venice, Toronto and regional film festival premieres.
As we told you, Origin became NEON’s highest tested movie in the distributor’s history outstripping Oscar Best Picture winner Parasite, as well as the highest for DuVernay.
“This is an incredible result for Origin, bringing in the 4th highest PSA of 2023, but it’s an especially meaningful achievement given that this is only a one week qualifying release. We look forward to the film’s true theatrical run in January.” beamed Elissa Federoff, President of NEON Distribution.
Origin goes wide on Jan. 19.
More….
SATURDAY AM: GKIDS’ The Boy and the Heron is the distributor’s biggest opening ever, with a 3-day between $10.7M-$12M after a $5.56M Friday/previews. The overall marketplace, though sluggish, isn’t as bad as we thought, with around $69M, which is up +82% from a year ago. Thank God for small miracles. GKIDs’ previous 3-day record was Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering With You back in 2020 which posted $1.8M.
The Boy and the Heron
Courtesy of GKIDS/Studio Ghibli
The Boy and the Heron is standing on high marks with an A- Cinemascore, 4 1/2 stars, and a 65% definite recommend. Mostly guys, not all, at 54%, with 80% of those who watched between 18-34 and the largest demo being 25-34 at 44%. Diversity demos are 43% Caucasian, 22% Latino and Hispanic, 7% Black, and 27% Asian/other. PLF and Imax are driving 38% of the gross so far. While the West is strong for the Hayao Miyazaki movie, the AMC Boston Commons is the highest-grossing cinema in the nation at $39K. We don’t see them often in the lead.
There’s some other victory laps here for The Boy and the Heron:
–The movie’s opening day easily bests the domestic take of Miyazaki’s last film, 2013’s The Wind Rises ($5.2M), and will rep the highest opening gross for a Studio Ghibli film.
—Boy and the Heron is the only entirely foreign production to top the weekend box office this year, and the first since Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in August 2022 ($21.1M).
–The Miyazaki movie is the first original anime (not based on existing IP) to ever top the weekend box office, and the third anime of any sort to do so (after Pokemon: The First Movie and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero).
—Boy and the Heron is also the first 2D animated feature not based on existing IP to top the weekend box office since 2009’s The Princess and the Frog from Disney. ($24.2M wide opening).
Also looking better this AM is the fourth weekend of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, with around $9.4M.
Everett
AMC’ Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce has lost its glam with a $5.6M 3-day, -74%. Ouch. One could say that it was always destiny for the Queen Bey movie to drop, because it’s a concert movie and it’s front-loaded. However, this is the worst time to release a movie in the pre-Christmas period, when moviegoers are distracted with holiday activities. Furthermore, you can’t launch tentpoles on social media alone. You need a fire-breathing pummel of TV spots, and the whole 360 and talk shows of it all. It’s never prudent to approach theatrical quietly: Look at what Warner Bros is doing with Wonka, which opens next weekend and could explode beyond its projected $40M. I mean, the movie got a big push on The Tonight Show in a bit between Jimmy Fallon and Anne Hathaway — and she’s not even in the movie! She’s in NEON’s Eileen! The point is when you want your movie to go beyond the scope of any advertisement into the cultural ethos, so it can resonate. Wonka opens abroad this weekend with a $30M projection.
Searchlight’s Poor Things isn’t penniless, with a robust $69K theater average, or $623K weekend at nine theaters after a $279K Friday. That’s shaping up to be the third-best opening theater average YTD, behind Focus Features’ Asteroid City ($142K) and A24’s Beau Is Afraid ($80K). It’s also ahead of Amazon MGM adult gothic romance Saltburn (which posted $46K from seven theaters in weekend one). Yorgos Lanthimos previous sexy period movie, The Favourite, which also starred Emma Stone, posted a $105,6K theater average. However, that was from four theaters that opened to $422K. Rich numbers for Poor Things from AMC Century City, AMC Burbank, AMC Grove and NYC’s AMC Lincoln Square, Alamo Brooklyn, Regal Union in NYC, Alamo San Fran, AMC Metreon San Fran and Alamo South Lamar Austin. The best is Lincon Square, with $52K through Friday, followed by Burbank with $41K. Poor Things in its adult content makes 1988’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being look like a Disney Princess film ($10M final domestic gross back then for the kinky Daniel Day Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin movie). It will be really interesting to see if Poor Things resonates with older arthouse moviegoers. Anecdotally, the movie has great word of mouth among many awards voters.
The top 10:
1.) Boy and the Heron (GKIDS) 2205 theaters Fri $5.56M, 3-day $10.7M-$12M/Wk 1
10.) The Shift (Angel) 2,415 theaters, Fri $610K (-65%) 3-day $2.2M (-49%), Total $8.5M/Wk 2
FRIDAY PM: While the first weekend of December gets a bad rep for being slow, the second weekend is often slower, so don’t be surprised if all films total around $38M on par to the same frame a year ago. Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, as expected, will lead all movies with an anticipated $10.7M opening after a $5.4M Friday at 2,205 theaters, which includes $2.39M previews. The movie currently has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes audience rating.
Lionsgate
Second place goes to the fourth weekend of Lionsgate’sThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakeswith a Friday of $2.5M (-38%), 3-day of $8.75M (-38%), running total of $134.9M by Sunday EOD at 3,665 theaters. That domestic running total through 24 days is -7% behind Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald at the same point in time, and which opened in the same pre-Thanksgiving weekend back in 2018. That Harry Potter spinoff sequel finaled at $159.55M in U.S./Canada.
Third is Toho’s Godzilla Minus One at 2,540 theaters with a second Friday of $1.8M (-62%), second weekend of $6.4M (-44%) and running total of $23.4M by Sunday.
Universal/Dreamworks Animation‘s Trolls Band Togetherwill see a fourth Friday of $1.3M (-23%), 3-day of $6M (-23%) for a running total of $82.88M at 3,447 theaters.
Getty
AMC’s second weekend of Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce at 2,539 theaters is looking at a second Friday of $1.6M, -86%, and 3-day of $5.2M, -76%, running total of $28.2M. Maybe this movie should have played weekdays? That’s quite the steep drop next to Taylor Swift: Eras Tour which fell -64% in weekend 2. Renaissance‘s second frame percent wise is also worse than Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (-67%), Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (-55%), and Michael Jackson’s This Is It (-43%).
Bleecker Street’s Waitress the Musical is looking at a Friday of $700K at 1,214 theaters and 3-day of $2.25M.
FRIDAY AM: After one Japanese title delivered at the sleepy December box office last weekend, that being Godzilla Minus One, here’s another that’s set to dominate: Studio Ghibli and Gkids’ Hayao Miyazaki toon The Boy and the Heronis looking at a No. 1 bow with $10M+ after $2.39M Thursday and early-access previews.
The comp here is quite literally last weekend’s Japanese live-action title Godzilla Minus One (read the review), which saw previews of $2.1M before minting a $4.7M Friday, and 3-day of $11.4M at 2,308 theaters.
The Boy and the Heron played at 1,774 theaters in U.S. and Canada with showtimes starting at 5 p.m. Thursday. The pic is booked at 2,205 theaters this weekend, including Imax and PLF. It’s the first Studio Ghibli film to be presented in Imax. There were awards-qualifying preview engagements that began on Thanksgiving in New York and Los Angeles, and those figures are going to be rolled into daily grosses on a prorated basis during the next two weeks, per Gkids.
Although Miyazaki retired in 2013, he returned to make this movie, which is billed as “a semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death and creation.” In the pic, a young boy named Mahito yearns for his mother and ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning.
Miyazaki’s last film, The Wind Rises, made $5.2M stateside via Disney. The current highest opening weekend for a Studio Ghibli film is 2012’s The Secret World of Arrietty, which bowed with $6.4M via Disney and finaled at $19.2M stateside. The Boy and the Heron easily will surpass that pic’s opening footprint of 1,522 theaters to become the widest opening ever for a Studio Ghibli film as well as the widest opening for a Gkids release. The Boy and the Heron is screening in subtitled and English-dubbed prints. The big-name dubbed version features Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh.
The Boy and the Heron is 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and has grossed more than $84M abroad, $56.1M one of that in its native Japan, where it reached Miyazaki’s highest opening ever there sans any promotion back in July.
The pic premiered internationally as the Opening Night Gala Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival, a first for a Japanese or animated film. It recently won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animated Feature and was honored among the National Board of Review’s Top 10 Films of 2023.
‘Godzilla Minus One’
Speaking of Godzilla Minus One, the highest-grossing Japanese live-action title stateside led Thursday with $1.25M (-8% from Wednesday) and a first week of $17M at 2,308 theaters. The pic’s second weekend looks to be $5M-$6M in a tossup race for third place with AMC’s second frame of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.
Getty
That concert docu from the 32-time Grammy winner (read the review) paused showtimes Monday through Wednesday but returned Thursday with $1.145M to claim the day’s No. 3 spot. She’s also looking at around $6M. Running cume for Renaissance is $23.1M.
Lionsgate
Don’t underestimate Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (read the review), which placed second Thursday with $1.148M (-3% from Wednesday) and took in a third week of $19.5M at 3,691 theaters with a running total of $126.2M. Projections for the fourth frame of the Francis Lawrence-directed prequel starring Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth is around $8M.
Fourth place goes to Bleecker Street’s feature take of Broadway musical Waitress,which did $672K at 1,214 theaters.
Fifth place is Apple Original Production’s Napoleon via Sony (read the review), which made $609K Thursday, -13% from Wednesday, for a second week of $10.2M at 3,500 theaters and running total of $48.9M.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winning Poor Things, starring and produced by Emma Stone (read the review), is bowing in four markets in a total of nine theaters – New York (AMC Lincoln Square, Regal Union Square and Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse), Los Angeles (AMC Century City, AMC The Grove, AMC Burbank 16), San Francisco (AMC Metreon, Alamo Drafthouse Mission) and Austin (Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar). This is quite the spicy adult-themed movie from Disney’s Searchlight, and it will be interesting to see how arthouse audiences embrace the pic, which has spurred hot buzz among awards bloggers and media. The movie about a Frankenstein-like girl who finds her sexual independence across Europe is 93% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, which many also found to be audacious in its sexy content, posted a first weekend of $322K at seven theaters for a $46K theater average. Can Poor Things top that?
Saltburn, which posted an amazing -9% third weekend, post-Thanksgiving hold, ended its third week with $2.9M after a $256K Thursday and a running total of $7.6M. The Amazon MGM movie hits Prime on December 22 (read the review).
Happy Halloween! Ubisoft Netherlands invites you to celebrate the spooky festivities with AI-generated Assassin’s Creed art. Terrifying indeed!
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People first began to notice some of Ubisoft’s social media channels posting what appeared to be AI-generated versions of Assassin’s Creed art last night. A smoothed over, off-brand Ezio emerged on the French publisher’s X (formerly known as Twitter) account for Latin America. “In other amazing industry news here’s an official Ubisoft account with 300K followers posting AI art,” tweeted Forbes contributor Paul Tassi. The publisher’s post was mocked for making Ezio look like a Fortnite character and for one character in the background wielding gun grips like knives. The tweet was deleted soon after.
Not to be outdone, however, the Ubisoft Netherlands account followed up with its own AI-looking Ezio art complete with Jack-o’-lanterns. “Which Ubisoft game is perfect for this horrible evening?” the account asked in Dutch. Clearly the one the Assassin’s Creed maker was playing with fans’ hearts.
Ubisoft recently revealed that over 1,000 people have left the company in the last year as part of its “cost reduction” program. Some of those departures were voluntary, but others included layoffs across customer support, marketing, and other departments in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere. “Ubisoft literally conducting layoffs this year and last month, and they’re posting AI art,” tweeted film concept artist Reid Southen. “Unbelievable. What the hell is the game industry doing right now.”
Still, over 19,000 people continue to work at Ubisoft, including many devoted just to the Assassin’s Creed franchise and all of its sequels, spin-offs, and other incarnations currently in the pipeline. Surely one of them could have made some art for the social media accounts. Or the company could have just used one of its many existing Ezio images. Anything would have been preferable to posting ugly AI-generated crap as thousands are laid off across the video game industry this year.
Fans have had to become increasingly vigilant in 2023 about companies trying to pass off AI-generated images in their marketing, as DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and other AI text-to-image models make it easier than ever to cobble together fake art. Amazon did it to promote its upcoming Fallout TV show. It sure seemed like Niantic did it to promote upcoming content in Pokémon Go. Legendary Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki calling AI art tools “an insult to life itself” back in 2016 has never felt so prophetic.
Contrary to popular belief, How Do You Live? (aka The Boy and the Heron) will no longer be Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film.
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In a recent red carpet interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, Studio Ghibli vice president Junichi Nishioka told CBC reporter Eli Glasner that the iconic director has been coming into the office with new movie ideas following The Boy and the Heron’s international release. This news comes after years of Studio Ghibli never releasing a single trailer to promote Miyazaki’s final film, sharing only the title and a single poster in the run-up to release, and operating on the intriguing premise of it being Miyazaki’s final animated movie.
“Other people say that this might be [Miyazaki’s] last film, but he doesn’t feel that way at all,” Nishioka told the CBC. “He is currently working on ideas for a new film. He comes into his office every day and does that. This time, he’s not going to announce his retirement at all. He’s continuing working just as he has always done.”
As longtime Ghibli watchers may recall, Miyazaki’s previous, supposed “final” films were 2013’s The Wind Rises and then 2018’s animated short film Boro the Caterpillar. Yet here we are today, tricked once more by this master of fake retirement.
According to Anime News Network, How Do You Live? is about a boy named Mahito Maki who, after the death of his mother in the firebombings of Tokyo during World War II, moves with his father to the countryside. Things take a dramatic turn for Mahito when his father remarries his mother’s pregnant sister. It’s here that Mahito meets a talking heron who promises him that he can see his mother again if he follows him into another mysterious world, one which critics are praising for its visual inventiveness and stunning animation.
If you’re still planning on going into Miyazaki’s latest “final film” without any knowledge of what the film looks like, I suggest you don’t click on the trailer below. I’m told it’s pretty sweet—like worth paying $300 to snag the final movie ticket on Ticketmaster kinda sweet.
GKIDS Films
Personally, I’m gonna opt to not watch the trailer because I wanna watch How Do You Live? with fresh eyes. If Japanese audiences could do it, why can’t we?
Hayao Miyazaki has been capturing the hearts of children and adults everywhere for years. With this film, that will supposedly come to an end.
Miyazaki is well-known for directing movies like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Ponyo through his company, Studio Ghibli. His works explore deep themes like family, magic, and the destructive forces wrought by unhampered industrialism. Still, there’s a contradiction in Miyazaki; as his films often reject modernity while they are also obsessed and fascinated by aspects of it. Miyazaki channels those contradictions into something beautiful, time after time.
Although he had announced retirement multiple times, Miyazaki is now 82 years old. His latest “final” film is The Boy and the Heron, which tells the story of a young boy by the name of Mahito. Mahito lost his mother in a bombing during World War II. In real life, Miyazaki also escaped a bombing as a young boy. His father became an airplane mechanic, just like Mahito’s. In The Boy And The Heron, Mahito is visited by a talking Heron who tells him that his mother is still alive. The Heron draws him into a new world of magic and mystery, on the search for his mother.
After months of anticipation (and absolutely no footage of the film being made available to the public) The Boy and the Heron trailer is finally out:
Here is Studio Ghibli’s official description of the film:
A young boy named Mahito
yearning for his mother
ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead.
There, death comes to an end,
and life finds a new beginning.
A semi-autobiographical fantasy
about life, death, and creation,
in tribute to friendship,
from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
The Boy and the Heron is scheduled to open in theaters (and in IMAX) on December 8. The film will premiere tomorrow at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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Influential Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature in 10 years will open this year’s Toronto International Film festival.
“The Boy and the Heron” is hand-drawn, written and directed by Miyazaki. The coming-of-age film is centered on a boy whose mother is killed during the Second World War, and the magical world he enters.
Miyazaki, who won an Oscar for the critically acclaimed and commercially successful 2001 film “Spirited Away,” is considered a brilliant storyteller and has inspired animators around the world.
“The Boy and the Heron” set box office records in Japan when it opened earlier this month despite no promotion or marketing from Studio Ghibli.
Miyazaki is also behind the 2013 Oscar-nominated drama “The Wind Rises” and the 1988 classic “My Neighbor Totoro.”
