Some wonderful news. Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” opening tomorrow in 2100 locations, is projected to earn $10.2M at the domestic box-office.
These numbers would result in Miyazaki’s film opening at #1 this weekend. ‘Beyoncé’ would be #2 ($9.5M). I decided to take a look at the local showings for tonight and, yes, most of the Miyazaki screenings around me are completely sold out.
It helps that the reviews have been incredible — “The Boy and the Heron” sits at 92 on Metacritic and is 97 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Next year’s Oscar for Best Animated Film will no doubt be between Miyazaki’s film or “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
Aren’t we lucky to have a new Miyazaki film? Not just that, it’s a great one — “The Boy and the Heron” is this surreal, almost nightmare-esque, statement from the Japanese master. It’s a visual masterpiece.
The first English-dubbed trailer was released last month. The English-language voice cast features Christian Bale, Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Willem Dafoe, Karen Fukuhara, Mark Hamill, Robert Pattinson, and Florence Pugh.
Earlier this fall, “The Boy and the Heron” actually broke Box-office records in France. It even amassed the best first day box-office totals for any film in Paris for 2023 — bigger than “Barbie”!
Back in September, I wrote that “The Boy and the Heron,” was Miyazaki’s best film since “Spirited Away.” The film just envelops you into its strange world, where nothing is as it appears. Miyazaki conjures up these elaborate, nightmaresque, set-pieces that toss plot aside in favor of sheer cinematic nirvana.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.