'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The recent opening weekend release of One Piece Film: Red saw Japanese moviegoers flood theaters to catch the highly-anticipated film. Turnout was incredibly successful, with the film reportedly becoming the highest-grossing opening weekend within the franchise’s long history of movies.
One Piece Film: Red has also reportedly broken even more records, placing second in two key categories, which emphasize the film's success. It’s certainly been a great year for anime films, with other entries such as Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train also bringing home fantastic box office numbers.
Follow along as this article fully breaks down the latest news regarding One Piece Film: Red’s success on its opening weekend.
One Piece Film: Red becomes 2nd highest grossing opening weekend film in Japanese box office history, but with a caveat
One Piece Film: Red box office numbers
As mentioned earlier, the highly anticipated One Piece Film: Red movie was released in general Japanese theaters this past weekend. Unsurprisingly, Japanese citizens flocked to movie theaters to catch the film, with the Saturday and Sunday numbers being ¥2,254,237,030 ($16.63 million) combined with over 1.5 million admissions to theaters.
Within the franchise, the film has already become the highest-grossing opening weekend. However, the film has also broken some other general box office records as well. Film: Red has already become the second highest-grossing Japanese opening weekend in history, which includes live-action cinema as well as anime and other animated films.
When looking at two-day openings, the only film to have a better gross is 2020’s Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. However, this is excluding Mugen Train’s Friday numbers as well as other films’ Friday numbers, since Film: Red opened on a Saturday rather than a Friday. As a result, the movie’s rank begins slipping once these Friday numbers for other films are included.
Regardless of this specific caveat, the movie can already claim to have the highest opening weekend numbers for a film in the franchise. If the attendance numbers and excitement surrounding the film continue, it certainly has a fighting chance at beating One Piece Film: Z's highest-grossing overall at 6.87 billion Yen.
What’s most impressive about all of these various achievements Film: Red has made is that it marks the 15th film in the franchise overall. For such a long-running franchise, with so many films and other mediums to consume, it’s impressive to see such record-breaking numbers 15 films and 25 years later.
The film follows Monkey D. Luffy and his Straw Hat crew as they attend the concert of Uta, the world’s most popular singer. However, as most of the world is unaware, Uta is the daughter of the legendary Yonko Shanks and is a childhood friend of Luffy via his well-established acquaintance with Shanks.
Although only screening in Japan as of this writing, Crunchyroll had previously announced plans to release the film worldwide in Fall 2022. With the success of One Piece Film: Red in the domestic market, fans and critics are ecstatic to see international box office numbers, providing yet another metric for the series’ international popularity.
Be sure to keep up with all One Piece anime, manga, film, and live-action news as the year of the series’ 25th anniversary progresses.
