Latest Gundam Film Smashes Series Record At Japanese Box Office

Gundam Seed Freedom key art

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom, the latest film in the Gundam franchise and a sequel to the classic Gundam Seed series, has made a name for itself very quickly in Japan, after it was announced that it set a new record for the franchise.

As reported by ANN, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom set a new record at the Japanese box office, with the highest box office earnings for a three day opening for the entire Gundam franchise. It’s also the biggest opening weekend for any film released in Japan this year so far, but given we’re still in January, that’s not exactly the biggest achievement.

Gundam SEED Freedom reportedly sold over 600,000 tickets, bringing in over a billion Japanese yen, or a little over $7 million USD. Both metrics are about double the previous record holder, Gundam Hathaway, which was released back in 2021.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom is a sequel to the 2002 anime series Gundam SEED, as well as its follow-up film Gundam SEED Destiny, taking place one year after the events of the latter. The film was announced all the way back in 2006, but was put on hold after writer Chiaki Morosawa fell ill. Morosawa unfortunately passed away in 2016, and the film was completed under the direction of her husband, Mitsuo Fukuda.

The new Gundam SEED film got a nostalgic theme song from TM Revolution, who previously performed the main themes for the series and its movie sequel, and an ending theme from See-Saw, a musical duo that performed the ending theme for Gundam SEED but has been on hiatus for more than a decade.

No English release for the film has been announced yet, but Gundam has been on a hot streak in the West lately, and there’s a lot of excitement about the upcoming CGI Gundam film coming to Netflix soon.

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