When you have a franchise, especially a franchise that is in the movies, the true goal of the release is to do better than the previous one. If a movie had a good box office, you want the sequel film to do more than the previous one, if for no other reason than to showcase that the fans of that particular franchise are still very much desiring to see more of that content. The Dragon Ball franchise has been releasing many movies over the last decade, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is the latest. But did it do better than the previous movie in Broly? In the US market, yes.
Because between the first weekend and the projections for the second weekend, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has apparently grossed around $30.76 million dollars, which would top the previous movie’s lifetime gross of $30.71 million in the US.
Now, there are a few key caveats here that need to be noted. The Broly movie had a more limited release within the United States, thus it reaching $30+ million in its lifetime is honestly very impressive given that it wasn’t given the “grand exposure” that a certain other movie got. For the new film, Crunchyroll and Sony went all out to put the movie in over 4000 theaters across the United States. It was basically treated like various blockbuster films and not just an “anime film” like many would’ve noted it as in the past.
Another key caveat is the totals as it stands right now. Prior to this current weekend, the film was over $50 million in revenue worldwide, including a very big debut in the US last weekend. That being said, the Broly movie grossed over $115 million worldwide when it aired, and that’s unlikely to happen with Super Hero based on the current estimates. Then again, with positive word of mouth and consistent earnings? Anything still is possible here. But it is to be said that Broly did better in Japan overall.
Still, even with these caveats, the movie is proving to have staying power and is very much a reward for Crunchyroll, because now they can look at potential future movie releases for animes and see how big they might get depending on the franchise that they showcase.
That is actually the very big question for Dragon Ball as a whole–where does it go from here? Creator Akira Toriyama has been hinting at things, but there hasn’t been any confirmations as of yet. The manga is still going strong, so there is content. So hopefully this box office gross will showcase what can and should come next.
Source: Anime News Network
