Funimation’s Wednesday opening of Kenji Nagasaki’s anime My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising led yesterday’s box office with $1.7M at 1,275 theaters according to early morning estimates.
Though much smaller than the $7M first day Wednesday opening of Funimation’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly prior to MLK weekend last year, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising had enough bucks to beat the first Wednesday of Disney/20th Century Studios’ Call of the Wild which made $1.5M in second place (cume at $31.2M) and Paramount’s second Wednesday of Sonic the Hedgehog which grossed $1.1M in third place (running cume at $111M).
Heroes Rising is the second film based on the manga My Hero Academia by Kōhei Horikoshi and takes place during the fourth season of the TV show. In the sequel, a group of youths aspire to become professional superheroes, and fight in a world full of people with abilities, also known as quirks. The protagonist Deku and his fellow classmates from Hero Academy face Nine, the strongest villain yet. Heroes Rising has already played Japan where it has grossed $15.1M.
The first movie, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, was also released by Funimation in September 2018 and was purely an event-style release, opening at 513 locations. The pic posted a six-day opening of $3.96M (3-day of $1.38M) and ended its domestic run with $5.75M. Global was $21M with 40% of that number coming from Japan.
With Dragon Ball Super: Broly last year, Funimation varied its theater count on a daily basis during the pic’s first five days, a unique means of eventizing the movie for anime fans in various markets around the country. I understand a similar rollout is in place for Heroes Rising. Last year following its robust opening day, Dragon Ball Super: Broly made $22.3M during the Wednesday through Monday stretch of MLK weekend for a 4th place 3-day take of $9.8M. Dragon Ball Super: Broly played for six weekends, staying in wide release (north of 1,000 theaters) for two, and ending its domestic run at $30.7M, with a massive WW take of $115.5M with a third of that coming from Japan.