#Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Anime Film Posts Biggest Opening Day in Eva History

Even with the unusual Monday opening, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time had the biggest opening day in the franchise’s history, bringing in 23.8% more revenue and 21.7% more in ticket sales than Evangelion 3.0 in 2012. Evangelion 3.0 opened on a Saturday, and films in Japan usually now open on Fridays. In one day, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 also topped the opening weekends of Evangelion 1.0 and Evangelion 2.0, as well as the three-day opening weekend admissions of The End of Evangelion.

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 opened on the most screens in franchise history inside 466 theaters, with MX4D, 4DX, and IMAX screenings available on opening day.

Anime studio Khara reported that on the films opening day of March 8, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 brought in 827,742,000 yen (US$7,616,394) on the back of 539,623 tickets sold. On their 2-day opening weekends (opening on a Saturday), Evangelion 1.0 made 280.4 million yen (US$2.42 million), and Evangelion 2.0 made 512 million yen (US$5.37 million), while Evangelion 3.0 made 1,131,004,600 yen (US$13,913,200). While ticket sales aren’t readily available for The End of Evangelion, approximately 450,000 people saw the film in Japanese theaters on its three-day opening public holiday Monday weekend. 

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 finally opened in Japan after being delayed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 8. It is the longest film in the franchise (not including compilations or special screenings). No word yet on an international release of the film.

Sources: Oricon, Khara on Twitter

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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.