#‘Final’ Evangelion Anime Film Moves up to 9th on All-Time JP Anime Box Office Chart

While it seemed like Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time was on its last legs at the Japanese box office, since the release of the “3.0+1.01” updated version was released, the box office of the film grows at a rapid rate, pushing past Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire to become the 9th highest-grossing anime film in Japan of all time.

As of June 27, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 has grossed 9.57 billion yen (US$87.22 million) on the back of 6.26 million tickets sold. This had made the “final” Evangelion film the 9th highest-grossing anime film in Japan of all time, just under Hayao Miyazaki’s last retirement film The Wind Rises at 12.02 billion yen (US$116.9 million). 

Spoiler-filled trailer:

While it seems that Evangelion 3.0+1.0 may just make the 10 billion yen milestone that director Hideaki Anno is aiming for, each week has seen the film drop 90 million yen from the previous week, so it may take a while for the robot film to get there.

With this jump, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 is now the 42nd highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, above 2015’s Jurassic World film, and below A.I. Artificial Intelligence which made an astonishing 96.6 billion yen in 2001.

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 finally opened in Japan after being delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 8, breaking franchise records on the first day and eventually becoming the highest-grossing film in the franchise in Japan in less than a month, then the highest-grossing worldwide in 35 days, and finally the 9th highest-grossing anime film in Japan of all-time. It is the longest film in the franchise (not including compilations or special screenings). An updated version of the film, Evangelion 3.0+1.01, was released in Japanese theaters on June 12. There is no word yet on an international release of the film.

Sources: Kogyo Tsushin, Oricon

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.