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| Image Credit: Studio Ghibli |
Studio Ghibli returned to providing emotions in theaters with The Boy and the Heron, and the Americans rewarded the gift with first place in the US Box Office.
In a weekend devoid of great excitement, the new film by master Hayao Miyazaki won the American box office in its debut weekend with an estimated taking of 10.44 million dollars (12.83 million with previews). The estimated debut gross of The Boy and the Heron (here is our review) is higher than the totals of “Spirited Away”, “The Wind Rises” and “Howl's Moving Castle”, and is one step away from surpassing “Ponyo”'s total.
- 2002 Spirited Away = $10 million
- The 2014 Wind Rises = $5.2 million
- 2005 Howl's Moving Castle = $4.7 million
- 2009 Ponyo = $15 million
The second position at the American box office went to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with a new taking of 9.4 million dollars, for a total of 135.65 million. The overall takings continue to be the lowest ever for the entire saga in the same period but are constantly recovering given the reasonable stability shown in recent weeks.
- -59% compared to 2012's Hunger Games = $336.6 million
- -62% compared to 2013's Catching Fire = $357.5 million
- -51% less than 2014's Mockingjay Part 1 = $276.8 million
- -44% less than 2015's Mockingjay Part 2 = $244.6 million
Godzilla Minus One took third place at the US Box Office with a new gross of 8.34 million dollars, for a total of 25.34 million. It must be considered that Toho's monster movie enjoyed 232 more theaters this weekend compared to its debut, a move which mitigated the decline (-27%) compared to seven days earlier.
In the rest of the top five, Troll 3 – All Together grossed another 6.2 million dollars, for a total of 83.08 million, while Disney's animated film “Wish” collected 5.3 million dollars in fifth position (a total of 49.41 million).
Source: Boxofficepro