The production team behind Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time (Shin Evangelion Gekijō-ban :||), Studio Khama, has given details about the box office numbers of their latest film. The alleged final Evangelion film has had a strong run in the box office so far, grossing 7 billion yen, equivalent to $63.7 million USD. Domestic Japanese audiences have been enjoying the film for 30 days now.
Over the latest weekend, the film sold 196,321 tickets to audience members, earning over 320 million yen ($2.9 million USD). As of writing, the film has sold over 4.5 million tickets and grossed 6.8 billion yen (equivalent to $62.4 million USD). The film has sat comfortably at the number 1 rank in the Japanese box office for four weeks straight since its opening. So far, it has surpassed the earnings of the next highest in the series, Evagelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, which grossed 5.3 billion yen in its theatrical run. The new film is now the highest-grossing film in the series.
The premiere of the film has been reported to have sold 530,000 tickets for a gross profit of around 800 million yen, the equivalent of roughly $7.3 million USD on its opening premiere date. This is 45% higher than the previous film in the series. Furthermore, the film has set the record for highest IMAX theater attendance earned on an opening day. Sales for IMAX tickets made up about 10% of all opening weekend sales, despite only being 1-2% of the screens in Japan.
A state of emergency that had delayed the opening of the film ended on March 7th in Tokyo and all surrounding prefectures. The film has taken longer than originally anticipated to release. The first delay to the film came after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Japan, making the original June 27th 2020 release date impossible. The movie was pushed to a release date of January 8th; however, this had to be pushed to January 23rd after a declared state of emergency was set in four different prefectures in interior Japan. This extended to 11 prefectures later on.
To make up for the newly moved opening date, theaters started handing out leaflets featuring an exclusive illustration of Asuka by the movie’s chief animation director Atsushi Nishigori.
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