Anime properties continued to have a mixed reception at the Japanese box office, as Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero continues its solid but unspectacular performance, while Fullmetal Alchemist: The Last Transmutation outright flops.
As reported by Eiga.com, the latest Dragon Ball adventure finished in second place, again being outpaced by Tom Cruise's record-breaking international blockbuster, Top Gun Maverick. Gohan and Piccolo's battle against the Red Ribbon Army has earned 1.6 billion yen (about $11.7 million USD at current exchange rates,) in its three weeks in theaters. While this is a solid figure by most anime standards, the film is still performing below the pace set by the previous movie in the series, 2018's Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which is still the highest-grossing feature in the franchise. The movie will be released in the United States on Aug. 19 by distributor Crunchyroll.
The new Dragon Ball movie is the first theatrical release in the series to be animated entirely using CG models. While the American release is still about two months away, spoilers for Super Hero's biggest moments began trending on social media services within hours of the film's Japanese release. Set after the events of the Broly movie and the Moro arc, the new movie sees Piccolo and Gohan teaming up once again to rescue Pan, Gohan's daughter, from the Red Ribbon Army and their new pair of android fighters.
Super Hero is still performing better than the third and final live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie, The Last Transmutation, which debuted in eighth place with 70 million yen, or about $513,000 USD. The movie is the final act of a trilogy that began with the 2017 live-action FMA movie, which was released internationally as a Netflix streaming exclusive, and continued with The Avenger Scar, which was released earlier this year. The finale is selling substantially less tickets than both of its predecessors, and was outperformed at the box office by Shin Ultraman and the Quintessential Quintuplets The Movie, which are both a month old. The previous two films in the series both received mixed receptions from fans and critics alike, and the finale is receiving especially harsh reviews in Japan. An international release for both The Avenger Scar and The Last Transmutation have yet to be announced.
All of the previous Dragon Ball anime series are available for streaming on Crunchyroll. The original Dragon Ball manga, as well as the on-going Dragon Ball Super sequel series, are available in English from VIZ Media.
Both the original Fullmetal Alchemist and the Brotherhood remake series are now streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll, while Arakawa's manga is available in English from VIZ Media and Yen Press.
Source: Eiga.com via Crunchyroll