‘Belle’ Is Mamoru Hosoda’s Biggest-Ever Hit In The US
Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle may be keeping a low-ish profile on the awards circuit, but in U.S. theaters the anime feature is doing better than expected.
Here are the numbers:
- Belle grossed $1.65 million (estimated) in three days on 1,326 screens, ranking sixth. It is expected to top $2M over the four-day MLK holiday weekend.
- The musical fantasy is already Hosoda’s highest-grossing film in the U.S. That title was previously held by the Oscar-nominated Mirai, which took $812,794 in 2018.
- According to distributor GKIDS, Belle is also the top-grossing original anime film — one not based on an existing franchise — since its 2020 release Weathering with You grossed $8M.
- The feature is also Hosoda’s best-performing in Japan, where it has taken at least 6.53 billion yen (USD$59.6M). It was one of the highest-grossing films in the country last year.
- Belle has gone down well with critics too, netting a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It was well received at Cannes last year and has five Annie nominations.
In other box office news:
- Universal’s Sing 2 came third this weekend with $8.3M over three days. It is expected to reach $11M over four days, for a $122.1M cume. It is now also available on PVOD.
- The sequel from Illumination is the top-grossing animated feature in the U.S. in the pandemic, and the only one to pass $100M.
- Acclaimed documentary Flee grossed $1,100 from two theaters. After seven weekends, the film has a a cume of $62,000. The film is released by Neon and Participant.
- In China, Disney’s Encanto has grossed only around USD$5M in ten days. Compare that with directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard’s last film Zootopia, which grossed $236M in the country in 2016.
