Hayao Miyazaki’s film The Boy and the Heron hit the number one spot at the North American box office following its theatrical release on December 8, all while also garnering achievements for the director.
Entertainment data analytics The Numbers reported The Boy and the Heron’s ticket sales grossed $13 million in the US and Canada after its weekend opening, ahead by a significant distance to ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ which is currently sitting at number two with $9.3 million gross. ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ another Japanese film, landed third with $8.6 million.
Inspired by Genzaburō Yoshino’s novel ‘How Do You Live?,’ ‘The Boy and the Heron’ follows the story of Mahito, a young boy who recently lost his mother and ends up journeying with a cunning and deceptive gray heron through a mysterious realm where the dead and the living coexist.
However, Miyazaki decided to dedicate the film to his mentor and friend, Isao Takahata, who passed away in April 2018, almost a year after they started the movie production in May 2017. This changed the story’s core to focus on the strange friendship between Mahito and the heron.
Miyazaki is not new to having his films top North America as his highest-grossing film in the continent is currently Ponyo which was released in 2009 and earned $15.1 million. His film Spirited away which won Oscars’ Best Animated Feature in 2003 earned $10 million in the US and Canada in 2002.
While rumored as the farewell film of the 82-year-old legendary animator and director, the animé’s production house Studio Ghibli vice president Junichi Nishioka said during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival that Miyazaki is “currently working on ideas for a new film.”
“He comes into his office every day and does that. This time, he’s not going to announce his retirement at all. He’s continuing working just as he has always done,” the vice president added.
Miyazaki’s long-standing career spans decades of animated films with his co-founded Studio Ghibli. His notable works are ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’ in 1984, ‘Castle in the Sky’ in 1986, ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ in 1988, ‘Princess Mononoke’ in 1997, ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ in 2004, ‘Ponyo’ in 2008, and ‘The Wind Rises’ in 2013.
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