The second weekend of December has always been a relatively weak period for the North American film market. Everyone is preparing for the upcoming Christmas period. It is never too early to choose a commercial blockbuster for large-scale release at this time. Many, and this year is no exception.

"The Boy and the Heron" becomes the first Japanese original animation to top the North American weekend box office

For the above reasons, although Hayao Miyazaki's new film "The Boy and the Heron" (originally titled "How Do You Want to Live") opened with a box office of US$12.83 million in 2,205 North American theaters, it was ranked first last weekend. No. 1 on the box office list. This result is the second-lowest weekend box office number for the whole year, only higher than the US$8.55 million of "The Sister 2" in the third weekend of September and the US$8.55 million of "Magic" during the American Football "Super Bowl" weekend in February. Mike" received $8.33 million.

"The Boy and the Heron" poster

Of course, this situation is a bit embarrassing for Hollywood and the North American film market, but for a Japanese animated film like "The Boy and the Heron" and its director Hayao Miyazaki, it is possible to achieve such success in the North American market. The box office performance is quite an achievement. "The Boy and the Heron" has also set multiple box office records. First of all, it is the first Japanese original animation work in history to top the North American weekend box office chart. The previous "Pokémon" and "Dragon Ball Super: Super Cyborg" have done this, but both are existing IP works, unlike "The Boy and the Heron" which is purely original.

In addition, "The Boy" is also the first overseas production to become the North American weekend box office champion in 2023, and the first since last year's "Dragon Ball Super". Moreover, this is the first 2D animation to top the North American weekend box office without IP bonus since Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" in 2009.

The last time a Hayao Miyazaki work appeared on the big screen in North America was "The Wind Rises" ten years ago. Disney was responsible for the introduction at that time, and the distribution scale was small. In the end, it only received US$5.2 million at the North American box office, but it also won an Oscar later. The nomination for Best Animated Feature Film was ultimately defeated by "Frozen" and failed to replicate the success of "Spirited Away".

This time "The Boy and the Heron" just won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Animation, and was also included in the list of the top ten films of the year by the National Board of Review. It can be said that it is a sure thing to be nominated for an Oscar. Speaking of this year's Oscar animation, there are as many as 33 candidate films that are eligible for nomination, setting a historical record. In most years in the past, the number of eligible animated feature films has been around 20. Last year, 27 films were eligible, and in 2021 it will be 26. There is indeed a trend of more and more films. The previous record holder was 31 in 2020.

Among the 33 eligible films, there are American domestic works such as "Super Mario Bros.: The Movie," "Spider-Man: Across the Universe," "Elemental City," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Brawl" and "Duck Rush." " and " Paw Paw Team Makes Great Contributions Movie 2", etc., there are also animations from China such as "Deep Sea", "Snowy Boy", "Chang'an 30,000 Miles", as well as Japanese works "Slam Dunk", "The Lonely City in the Mirror", "Suzume no Suzume" "Brigade" and "Big Blue", as well as the Polish animation "Peasant", which was highly praised by the media, and the Spanish work "Dream of Robots" which just won the European Film Award for Best Animation. The Oscar judges will conduct preliminary voting from January 11 to January 16, 2024, to select the five shortlisted films.

Talking about the box office, the North American box office of "The Boy and the Heron" was US$12.83 million, which made the industry believe that it has a chance to eventually obtain a total North American box office of US$30 to 40 million. Can it surpass last year's "Dragon Ball Super" and "Ghost"? "Blade of Destruction" received US$38 million and US$49 million at the North American box office respectively. Let us wait and see.

Historically, the best North American release of a Ghibli work was 2012's "Arrietty," which was also distributed by Disney and screened in 1,522 theaters, ultimately earning $19.2 million in North America. Total box office. Among the works directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself, "Ponyo on the Cliff", which entered the North American market in 2009, received the highest revenue of US$15 million, but the film was only released in more than 900 theaters.

In comparison, the distribution scale of "The Boy and the Heron" this time is first of all much larger than before. Although the GKIDS film company that handles the distribution is completely different from Disney in terms of business scale, it specializes in various It is responsible for the distribution of overseas animation works, and has held Ghibli Film Festivals across the United States since 2017, cultivating a large number of Hayao Miyazaki fans in the United States.

Whether there will be a phenomenal box office blockbuster at the end of the year is doubtful

"The Hunger Games Prequels" ranked second on the North American box office list last weekend. The third place is occupied by "Godzilla-1.0", which received US$8.34 million at the box office. In other words, two Japanese films appeared among the top three in the weekend box office list. This can be said to be the first time in American history.

The current North American box office total of "Godzilla-1.0" has exceeded 25 million US dollars. You know, the film has also achieved very popular box office results since it was released in Japan on November 3, with a total of about 4 billion yen so far, but this is equivalent to about 27 million US dollars. From this point of view, it is probably only a matter of time before the North American box office of "Godzilla-1.0" exceeds its domestic box office.

"Godzilla-1.0" poster

When Japanese films enter the American market, animated films have always been the mainstream. "Pokémon: Mewtwo's Counterattack" introduced by Warner in 1999 still ranks first among similar movies with a North American box office of US$85.74 million. In terms of live-action movies, this time "Godzilla - 1.0" has firmly ranked first, surpassing "Catman Monogatari" (released in Japan in 1986 and North America in 1989) with a total North American box office of US$13.29 million to maintain its 30th place. Records for many years.

Last weekend's box office champion, Beyoncé's concert documentary "Renaissance," suddenly dropped to sixth place last weekend, which also surprised people in the industry. In terms of such achievements, Beyoncé’s influence may not be comparable to that of Taylor Swift, who was recently selected as Person of the Year by Time magazine. "Renaissance" also did not schedule weekday screenings, and only received US$5 million in box office in its second weekend, a year-on-year decline of 77%. The box office dropped only 64%, while the Michael Jackson concert movie and Justin Bieber concert movie in the early years had a year-on-year second weekend drop of only 40%-50%).

Originally, after seeing the box office miracle of Taylor Swift's concert movie, many theater operators inevitably thought that such live-action concert movies might become a new box office growth point. In 2024, when the supply of new movies has already been problematic, year, fill in the gaps, fill in the gaps. As a result, the actual box office of Beyoncé’s concert movie is a lesson to everyone. Of course, the box office of nearly 28 million U.S. dollars in the two weekends it was released is not a disaster, but it is a bit reluctant to rely on this to save the market. To blame, I’m afraid there is only one Taylor Swift in the world.

There are only the last two weekends left in the 2023 North American film market, and the Christmas period is approaching. This time of year is a prime time for the North American theater industry to gear up for big things. In the past ten years, except for Christmas in 2020, when the epidemic was the most serious, the Christmas periods in the remaining years have seen commercial blockbusters with large productions and wide box office appeal, namely "Avatar: Water Path" in 2022, "Avatar: Water Path" in 2021, ’s “Spider-Man: Homeless” and 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” But this year's situation is likely to disappoint these theater operators.

"Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom", released on December 22, originally seemed to have the opportunity to shoulder this burden, but with the release of "The Flash", "Shazam 2", "Blue Beetle", "Captain Marvel 2", "Ant-Man 3", etc. Many comic-book superhero blockbusters have failed at the box office. Many people in the industry are not optimistic about the box office prospects of "Aquaman 2". In addition, "Wonka" starring popular niche Timothée Chalamet will be released on December 15th, and the animated comedy "The Flying Ducks" produced by Universal Pictures will be released on December 22nd. ” and the sports-themed film “The Iron Claw” produced by the independent film company A24, plus the musical adaptation “The Color Purple” released on December 25, these various genres The films are expected to win the favor of the target audience. However, unless one of them succeeds, it may not be enough to offset the lack of phenomenal blockbusters.