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The Big Picture
- The Boy and the Heron, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, has surpassed $100 million globally at the box office, with $56 million coming from Japan and $14 million from South Korea.
- The film has received excellent reviews and a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences showing up in droves to watch it in theaters.
- Despite being released without a trailer, the film’s unconventional marketing strategy has paid off, and it has been a hit both domestically and overseas.
December is turning out to be the month of crossover hits, with Japan’s Godzilla Minus One doing gangbusters at the domestic box office. The well-reviewed kaiju movie was joined at the top of the chart last week by director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated feature — his first in a decade — The Boy and the Heron. Thanks to its global roll-out, The Boy and the Heron passed an important milestone at the worldwide box office on Friday.
After having debuted in its home country Japan back in July, The Boy and the Heron has now soared past the coveted $100 million mark globally. In exactly one week of release, the film has grossed a hair under $18 million at the domestic box office, while its overall overseas gross stands at $86 million. Of this, $56 million has come from Japan, while $14 million has come from South Korea. Other top territories for the movie are France ($11 million), Spain ($1.4 million) and Russia ($1.2 million).
The Boy and the Heron marks Miyazaki’s much-anticipated return to filmmaking, after it was suggested that he’d retired a decade ago. Studio Ghibli also deployed an unconventional strategy to market the movie, and released it without a trailer. The gamble paid off handsomely, with excited audiences showing up in droves, first in Japan, and then in North America.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Movie Is the Latest Foreign Language Film to Make an Impression at the Box Office
The Boy and the Heron topped the domestic box office in its debut weekend, grossing $13 million. This came just a week after Godzilla Minus One finished at the number three spot in its domestic debut, grossing $11 million. Toho’s latest Godzilla film has since generated a stupendous $29 million domestically, and it was recently announced that the movie would be expanding into several hundred more theaters this week. It received a similar expansion last week, following that encouraging opening. For context, Godzilla Minus One has generated more money domestically than Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, The Holdovers and Priscilla.
The Boy and the Heron, on the other hand, has generated more money at the domestic box office than Saltburn, Silent Night and Next Goal Wins. The film’s English-language version features the voice talents of Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista and others. Reviews for The Boy and the Heron have been excellent; it currently sits at a “fresh” 96% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. You can watch the film in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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