New sales figures place Jujutsu Kaisen as the new eighth highest-grossing anime movie of all time.
As reported by Oricon, the popular shonen franchise's first movie has now pulled in over 24.25 billion yen (about $180 million USD at current exchange rates,) around the world. According to Crunchyroll, who distributed the film outside of Japan, the new sales figures put the prequel film firmly within the global rankings of the top ten highest-grossing anime films of all time, ahead of 1998's Pokémon: The First Movie, which was released at the height of the initial Pokémon craze, and Studio Ghibli's critically acclaimed 1997 masterpiece, Princess Mononoke.
Cracking the top ten is simply the latest in a long line of achievements for Jujutsu Kaisen 0. The animated film debuted in Japan on Dec. 24, 2021, where it immediately set the record for the second-best opening weekend in Japanese film history. The movie would ultimately go on to become the Japanese box office's number one film for 2021, usurping the place of Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01, which debuted that summer and held the title for most of the year. The movie was then released by Crunchyroll in North America last March, where it would eventually become the fourth most commercially successful anime movie in the United States, a spot which was previously occupied by 2018's Dragon Ball Super: Broly, the highest-grossing movie in that franchise.
The prequel movie is set one year before the first episode of the anime series. Consequently, the movie does not feature the series usual protagonist, Yuji Itadori, but instead tells the story of Yuta Okkotsu, a somewhat more soft-spoken and timid young man who is haunted by a Curse born from the spirit of his deceased childhood friend, Rika Orimoto. Seeking a way to exorcise Rika, Yuta is brought to Tokyo Jujutsu High, a school that specializes in training Curse-battling fighters, but Rika's incredible strength attracts some unwanted attention from a vengeful sorcerer who would use her power against humanity.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 helped cement the franchise's place as one of Japan's biggest new shonen series. The original manga, which was created by author and artist Gege Akutami, was the best-selling series of 2021 with a whopping 30 million copies sold in Japan alone. A second season of the anime is currently production at studio MAPPA and is scheduled to premiere sometime in 2023. Megumi Ogata, who voices Yuta in the movie, has confirmed that she will reprise the role for the TV series' new season.
The first season of the anime is available for streaming on Crunchyroll. The original manga is available in English from VIZ Media.
Source: Oricon, Crunchyroll