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Gundam Seed Freedom Film Tops 1.9 Billion Yen in 10 Days (Updated)
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Update: Shochiku announced on Monday that the film has sold a total of 1,215,558 tickets and earned a cumulative total of 1,965,922,900 yen (US$13.25 million) in 10 days. The film sold 318,436 tickets and earned 523,065,770 yen (US$3.52 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film is screening in 353 cinemas in Japan, and it will get 4DX, MX4D, and Dolby CinemaR screenings starting on February 9. Source: Press release
The film sold 634,182 tickets for 1,065,983,130 yen (about US$7.20 million) in its first three days. This marks the Gundam franchise's highest three-day opening in box office earnings, and the biggest opening weekend for a film so far this year in Japan. The film topped Japan's box office in its first weekend.
The film opened in Japan on January 26. The film is planned for screenings in 56 countries and territories.
The franchise's previous opening-weekend record holder, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, sold 259,074 tickets for 523,943,800 yen (about US$4.77 million at the time) in its first three days at the box office in June 2021. It ranked at #3 (in terms of tickets sold) in its opening weekend. The film became the first Gundam film since 1988's Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack to top the 1 billion yen mark, and earned a total of 2.23 billion yen (about US$15.1 million by current conversion).
The 1982 Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space anime film holds the record for highest Japanese box office revenue in the Gundam franchise with a total of about 2.3 billion yen (US$15.5 million by current conversion).
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda directed the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) designed the characters.
Takanori Nishikawa (the artist also known as T.M. Revolution) performs the film's theme song "Freedom" with producer t.komuro (Tetsuya Komuro). See-Saw returned to the franchise to perform the ending song "Sarigiwa no Romantics" (Romantics Upon Parting), the first new music from the duo in two decades.
Source: Press release
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
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