#The Boy and the Heron Is The 4th Highest-Grossing Anime Movie in the US

The Boy and the Heron — which recently became the first anime film to win Best Motion Picture – Animated at the Golden Globes — has made over US$39 million at the US box office, according to Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. This achievement puts the Hayao Miyazaki film ahead of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero‘s lifetime gross of US$38,112,140. 

Passing Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero‘s gross also makes The Boy and the Heron the fourth most successful anime movie in the US, behind Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back (US$85,744,662), Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train (US$49,505,008) and Pokémon the Movie 2000 (US$43,758,684). The Boy and the Heron and the Hiromasa Yonebayashi-directed The Secret of Arietty (US$19,202,743) are the only Studio Ghibli movies to be in the top 10 highest-grossing anime list (before Heron, Miyazaki’s Ponyo was the 10th top-grossing anime movie in the States).

The Boy and the Heron was released in the US on December 8, 2023. It first premiered in Japan on July 14, 2023. GKIDS describes the film as:

After losing his mother during the war, young Mahito moves to his family’s estate in the countryside. There, a series of mysterious events lead him to a secluded and ancient tower, home to a mischievous gray heron. When Mahito’s new stepmother disappears, he follows the gray heron into the tower, and enters a fantastic world shared by the living and the dead. As he embarks on an epic journey with the heron as his guide, Mahito must uncover the secrets of this world, and the truth about himself.