#Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Breaks IMAX Records in Japan on Opening Day

The “final” Evangelion anime film opened in Japan on Monday and was the biggest opening in the anime franchise ever, bringing in 827,742,000 yen (US$7,616,394) on the back of 539,623 tickets sold. This made it the highest-grossing film on a Monday in Japan ever, as films usually premiere on Friday (and used to premiere on a Saturday). But those weren’t the only records broken for the long-awaited film.

Deadline reported yesterday that Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time was the highest opening day for the IMAX format in Japan ever at US$740,000 (which is included in the above overall day figure). This is even more impressive with the fact that IMAX screens for Evangelion 3.0+1.0 only took up 1 to 2% of the total screens for the film, whilst it brought in 10% of the films overall takings.

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train still holds the record for the best three-day opening for an IMAX film in Japan with 238 million yen (US$2.27 million), but we’ll learn over the coming days if Evangelion was able to top Demon Slayer on IMAX screens. Both films opened on IMAX screens simultaneously with a regular release, which has been a fairly new development for anime films, which were usually re-released in the IMAX format after a regular release. 

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 finally opened in Japan after being delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 8. It is the longest film in the franchise (not including compilations or special screenings). There is no word yet on an international release of the film.

Source: Deadline

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.