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

Pamela McClintock
·5 min read
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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 — which earned Miyazaki his first Golden Globe nomination on Monday — 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.

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This year, the holiday action gets underway in earnest next weekend when Warner Bros. opens Wonka, although it debuted in select markets overseas this weekend to a very promising $43.2 million from 37 markets, enough to rank No. 1 on the weekend global weekend chart.

The Boy and the Heron 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 earned an A- CinemaScore from American audiences and was fueled by younger adults, with 80 percent of ticket buyers between ages 18 and 34, including 44 percent between ages 25 and 34. According to PostTrak’s exit data, more than a quarter of the audience was Asian/other, well above the norm.

Moviegoers in North America have the option to watch the film with English subtitles or a dubbed version. The A-list actors voicing the dubbed version include Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, Willem Defoe, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh. The original Japanese voice cast includes Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura and Takuya Kimura.

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, after starting off slow, has hung in there to boast a domestic total of $135.6 million through Sunday and $279 million globally.

Japanese movie Godzilla Minus One placed third in its second weekend, with a solid $8.3 million from 2,450 cinemas. (No one THR consulted can remember another time when two Japanese titles landed in the top five at the North American box office.) The monster pic also set its own record in becoming the top-grossing Japanese live-action title of all time in North America, with $25.3 million in ticket sales.

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. It earned another $12.1 million overseas from 73 markets for a foreign cume of $90.7 million and $173.8 million.

Disney’s Wish and AMC Theatres’ Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé found themselves in a close race for No. 5, although Wish seems to have prevailed with an estimated $5.3 million from 3,450 locations. AMC is estimating $5 million from 2,542 locations for Renaissance, although studio box office execs elsewhere have it higher, at around $5.5 million. Final weekend numbers will be released Monday morning, meaning the order could shift.

Wish, which has struggled to find its voice, got some needed good news in only falling 31 percent over the weekend. Overseas, it took in another $12.1 million from 37 markets for a foreign tally of $56.1 million and a woeful $105.5 million globally (its domestic tally is $49.4 million).

Beyoncé’s concert documentary fell off steeply after opening to No. 1 last weekend. If the $5 million estimate holds, that would mean a massive drop of 77 percent, suggesting the pic was frontloaded and is relying primarily on superfans. If it comes in at $5.5 million, that means a 74 percent drop, which is still a huge decline. Like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Renaissance is only playing Thursday through Sunday. (AMC is also distributing Eras.)

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 Emma Stone-starring pic 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.

Also at the awards box office, Neon’s Origin made news by reporting a per-location average of $58,532 from two locations in a limited qualifying run. That’s the fourth-best average of the year. The Ava DuVernay-directed biographical drama officially opens in cinemas Jan. 19.

Dec. 10, 10:25 a.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Renaissance‘s drop.

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

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