Weekend Opens to a Massive 2.25 Billion Yen at JP Box Office, 2nd Best Opening in Movie One Piece Film: Red
Luffy always makes a grand entrance wherever he’s going and with the one-two punch of in-universe superstar Uta, One Piece Film: Red’s first weekend was always going to be big, but just how big was it? One Piece Film: Red had a huge first weekend after opening on August 6 on 495 screens across Japan, with the film sailing to 2.25 billion yen (US$16.63 million) from 1.57 million tickets sold. This marks the biggest opening for a One Piece film ever, the best opening weekend for August in Japan and the second-biggest two-day opening weekend for a film in Japanese history.
Film: Red couldn’t topple Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train’s two-day opening weekend record which still stands at 3.3 billion yen but cleanly took down JUJUTSU KAISEN 0’s 1.6 billion yen then-second place record.
It should be noted that both Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train and JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 both opened on a Friday while One Piece Film: Red opened on a Saturday and the above numbers don’t include the Friday opening day numbers or midnight previews. If counting those numbers, One Piece Film: Red’s first weekend drops to third behind Mugen Train’s enormous 4,623,117,450 yen (US$43.8 million) and JUJUTSU KAISEN 0’s 2,694,128,150 yen (US$23.54 million) opening.
One Piece TV Anime Sails Into Film: Red Crossover Episodes From August 14
On opening day, One Piece Film: Red brought in over 1.2 billion yen (US$8.87 million), making it the third film in Japanese history to make over 1 billion yen on opening day and on par with Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train’s first day in 2020. It is also only the second film in Japanese history (after Demon Slayer) to make 1 billion yen two days in a row. To put in perspective how well One Piece Film: Red has done, it has already grossed nearly half of what One Piece Film: Strong World made in 2009 and is on track to take down One Piece Film: Z as the highest-grossing film in the franchise at 6.87 billion yen, especially with the Obon holidays coming up and Film: Red’s great word of mouth. Toei, who is distributing the film in Japan, claimed on Saturday that they were aiming for the “highest-grossing start in the series.” They very much achieved that goal!
One Piece Film: Red opened in Japanese theaters on August 6. Crunchyroll, who’ll be releasing the film internationally across the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand sometime this fall, describes the seafaring musical adventure as such:
Uta —the most beloved singer in the world. Renowned for concealing her own identity when performing, her voice has come to be described as “otherworldly.” Now, for the first time ever, Uta will reveal herself to the world at a live concert. As the venue fills with all kinds of Uta fans—excited pirates, the Navy watching closely, and the Straw Hats led by Luffy who simply came to enjoy her sonorous performance—the voice that the whole world has been waiting for is about to resound. The story begins with the shocking fact that she is Shanks’ daughter. The One Piece TV anime is also still going strong, with over 1,000 episodes of the series streaming right here on Crunchyroll, with new episodes coming out as they air in Japan.