Hayao Miyazaki’s anime The Boy and the Heron tops the North American box office, a first for the Japanese master

Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, 82, is famous for his hugely popular anime movies, such as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro
His latest film, The Boy and the Heron, outperformed the latest Hunger Games and Godzilla movies to take top spot at the North American box office

Asian cinema: Japanese films

Associated Press

Published: 11:45am, 11 Dec 2023

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For the first time in Hayao Miyazaki’s decades-spanning career, the 82-year-old Japanese anime master is No 1 at the North American box office. Miyazaki’s latest enchantment, The Boy and the Heron, debuted with US$12.8 million, according to studio estimates.

The Boy and the Heron, the long-awaited animated fantasy from the director of Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and other anime classics, is only the third anime to top the box office in American and Canadian cinemas, and the first original anime to do so.

The film, which is playing in both subtitled and dubbed versions, is also the first fully foreign production to lead the North American box office this year.

Miyazaki’s films have often been enormous hits in Japan and Asia, but they’ve traditionally made less of a mark in North American cinemas.

Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has topped the US and Canadian box office. Photo: AFP

The director’s previous best performer was his last film, 2013’s The Wind Rises, which grossed US$5.2 million in its domestic run.

“It’s really a resounding statement for what animation can be,” said Eric Beckman, founder and chief executive of GKIDS, the North American distributor for Studio Ghibli films. “American audiences have been ready for a lot more than what they’ve been getting, and I think this really points to that.”

Grand Uncle (voiced by Mark Hamill in English and Shohei Hino in Japanese) in a screen grab from Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy And The Heron”. Photo: AP

The Boy and the Heron for years was expected to be Miyazaki’s swan song. But just as it was making its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Junichi Nishioka, Studio Ghibli vice-president, said the previously retired Miyazaki had begun working towards another film.

The Boy and the Heron has been hailed as one of the best films of 2023. The film, featuring an English dub voice cast including Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Dave Bautista and Mark Hamill, follows a boy who, after his mother dies during World War II, is led by a mysterious heron to a portal that takes him to a fantastical realm.

In Japan, its title translates to How Do You Live?

The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki goes out on a high

The Boy and the Heron earlier collected US$56 million in Japan despite zero promotion. Studio Ghibli opted to release the film without production stills, trailers, ads or billboards.

This year, all 10 of Miyazaki’s films with Ghibli were re-released in cinemas by GKIDS, which was founded in 2008 as a way to bring ambitious animation to wider audiences.

“Working on a Hayao Miyazaki film is a huge honour but also kind of terrifying,” Beckman said. “We’re really just trying to do justice to the film.”

The Boy and the Heron wasn’t the only Japanese film that ranked among the top films in cinemas over the weekend. Godzilla Minus One followed up its stellar debut last weekend with US$8.3 million for Toho Studios. Takashi Yamazaki’s acclaimed kaiju movie dipped just 27 per cent in its second weekend of release, bringing its total to US$25 million.

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