As mentioned a few weeks back, along with its win at the Academy Awards and the Japan Academy Film Prize, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron has been climbing its way up the Japanese all-time box office charts, this week moving up to 59th place, tieing with another Studio Ghibli classic, The Secret World of Arrietty.As of March 31, 2024, The Boy and the Heron has brought in 9.26 billion yen (US$64.73 million) at the Japanese box office since its release last August, making it the 59th highest-grossing film of all-time in Japan, tied with Arrietty, as well as the 17th highest-grossing anime film.
The Boy and the Heron was originally released in Japanese theaters on July 14, 2023, with its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, and its initial U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 29 before going wide on December 8. The film expanded nationwide again in Japan on March 20 and returned to theaters in North America on March 22.The movie won Best Animated Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards on March 11, Best Animation of the Year at the 47th Japan Academy Film Prize Awards on March 8, Best Animated Film at the British Academy Film Awards on February 18, and Golden Globe for Best Animated Film on January 7, among other awards.Crunchyroll released the film in Australia and New Zealand on December 7, 2023, and describes The Boy and the Heron as such:
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.
Source: Kogyo Tsushin
