There’s been a lot of big news about classic anime and manga as of late, and fans really don’t mind it one bit. The new Bleach anime has gotten a new trailer, One Piece Film: Red has gotten its release date for the West and its live-action show has wrapped production, My Hero Academia Season 6 is almost ready for launch, and, of course, there’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The latest movie in the Dragon Ball Super line has gotten a lot of people talking, and Crunchyroll did their best to ensure that the latest movie could be seen by as many people as possible. Well, they definitely did their jobs as the movie is still doing very well at the box office overall.
Because with the newest numbers that have come out, it’s been revealed that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is now over $85 million at the worldwide box office. To be clear, that includes the combined numbers of the West as well as Japan. The movie came out in Japan first, so its box office results weren’t originally included in the overall total. But now, we can see that the movie is doing quite well for an anime film.
It is true though that most likely it won’t reach the heights of the previous film in Broly, but there are various reasons you could account for that overall. The movie is still the second highest-grossing fill in the line of movies, and that’s not something to ignore at all. Plus, this movie did a lot of things that diverged from the typical formula that the movies had done to this point.
After all, the film was more about Piccolo and Gohan as they faced enemies of the past via the Red Ribbon Army. Who emerged to try and take down the Z-Fighters with their newest androids in Gamma 1 & 2. As well as with their superweapon in Cell Max. Goku and Vegeta were training with Broly over on the planet of Lord Beerus, and as a result of that, they weren’t really in the movie at all. Not to mention, the movie was completely in 3D for the first time ever, and many people were really hesitant about that at first.
Even with all of these changes, the movie still has done very well and helped prove that the anime fanbase will come to theaters to watch the biggest movies of the genre when they release. This is good because more of them are coming out in the future and Crunchyroll will be expecting their success overall.
Anime has come a long way since the 90s, back when people in the West “didn’t get” anime in a variety of ways. Now? They’re making it box office smashes. What a difference a few decades make.
Source: Box Office Mojo