Suzume, the latest film from Makoto Shinkai, has earned over 1.88 billion yen (~US$13.43 million) in its first three days at the Japanese box office, Kogyo Tsushin reported. The gross’ amount takes into account the advance IMAX screening on November 7.

The supernatural adventure movie also took the top spot at the weekend box office, where it has a notable lead over first runner-up Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s opening weekend gross of 490 million yen (~US$3,49 million).

Suzume‘s early takings slightly surpass Shinkai’s previous film, 2019’s Weathering With You, which made over 1.64 billion yen (~US$11.67 million) in the same period. Compared to 2016’s Your Name, the film that gave Shinkai his current level of popularity, Kogyo Tsushin reports that Suzume‘s opening gross is 147.4％ higher. 

To beat Weathering With You‘s total domestic gross, Suzume will have to make over 14.19 billion yen (~US$101 million). To surpass Your Name, which is fifth highest-grossing film in the country (Weathering With You is “only” the 14th), it will have to earn more than 25.03 billion yen (~US$178.3 million).

Although far and away the biggest winner, Suzume wasn’t the only anime title on the top 10 weekend box office ranking. One Piece Film Red, currently the ninth highest-grossing movie in Japan with 18.25 billion yen (~US$129.89 million), was the second runner-up, while the Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love ST☆RISH Tours movie took fourth place. These two films debuted on August 6 and September 2 respectively.

The more recent Sword Art Online -Progressive- Scherzo of Deep Night, which premiered on October 22, came in sixth place. 

Shinkai wrote Suzume (and its novelization) in addition to serving as its director and creator. Masayoshi Tanaka (Weathering With You and Your Name co-character designer, Her Blue Sky) served as the film’s character designer. 

Other staff include Kenichi Tsuchiya (Flavors of Youth “Love in Shanghai” character designer, Your Name) as animation director, Takumi Tanji (Your Name co-art director, Children Who Chase Lost Voices) as art director, and RADWIMPS (Your Name, Weathering With You) and Kazuma Jinnouchi (Ultraman and Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 co-composer) as music composers. CoMix Wave Films is the animation production company.

Meanwhile, the cast includes Nanoka Hara as Suzume Iwato, Hokuto Matsumura as Sota, Eri Fukatsu as Tamaki Iwato, Shouta Sometani as Minoru Okabe, Sairi Ito as Rumi Ninomiya, Kotone Hanase as Chika Amabe, Kana Hanazawa as Tsubame Iwato, and Hakuo Matsumoto as Sota’s grandfather.

Crunchyroll, which will distribute the movie internationally (sans Asia) in early 2023, describes the premise as: 

Suzume’s journey begins in a quiet town in Kyushu (located in southwestern Japan) when she encounters a young man who tells her, “I’m looking for a door.” What Suzume finds is a single weathered door standing upright in the midst of ruins as though it was shielded from whatever catastrophe struck. Seemingly drawn by its power, Suzume reaches for the knob… Doors begin to open one after another all across Japan, unleashing destruction upon any who are near. Suzume must close these portals to prevent further disaster.