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Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron Film Opens L.A.'s Animation Is Film Fest
posted on by Anita Tai
Animation Is Film announced on Thursday that Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron (Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, or literally How Do You Live?) will open the 2023 festival, which will run at Hollywood's TCL Chinese 6 Theatres from October 18 to October 22. Other anime films at the festival include Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower (the film version of the Phoenix: Eden17 anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix manga) and The Concierge (Production I.G animator Yoshimi Itazu's adaptation of Tsuchika Nishimura's manga.
The Boy and the Heron has sold over 5.46 million tickets, and is now the #79 highest-grossing film in Japan, after surpassing the 2007 HERO film, Deep Impact, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the live-action The Last Message: Umizaru film, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The film sold 1.003 million tickets and earned about US$13.2 million in its first three days in Japan. The film sold 1.353 million tickets and earned 2.149 billion yen (about US$15.53 million) in its Friday-Monday long weekend (July 17 was the Marine Day holiday in Japan).
The film is the first Studio Ghibli film to get a simultaneous IMAX release. The film is also screening in Dolby Atmos, Dolby Cinema, and DTS:X.
GKIDS licensed the film, and it will release it in North American theaters on December 8, with preview engagements on November 22.
Miyazaki is credited with the original work, in addition to directing the film and writing the script. Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) composed the music. Kenshi Yonezu (Chainsaw Man, My Hero Academia, March comes in like a lion) performs the theme song "Chikyūgi" (Globe).
Studio Ghibli will become a subsidiary of Nippon Television Holdings in October, as the network becomes the majority shareholder of studio, acquiring 42.3% of shares.
Sources: Anime Is Film's Site via Deadline, Japan Times via Deadline
