Final ‘Evangelion’ Film Takes $30.6M In First Week In Japan, Breaking Franchise Record

After several delays, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time has opened with a bang at the Japanese box office. In its first seven days, the film has taken 3.34 billion yen (USD$30.6 million) with around 2.19 million admissions, according to its producer Studio Khara.

Thrice Upon A Time opened on 446 screens on March 8 — a Monday, unconventionally — taking $7.6M on its first day. Long in the works, the film was initially slated to open on June 27, 2020, but was delayed to January 23, 2021, then again to March 8, because of the pandemic.

It is the fourth and final installment in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, which is based on Hideaki Anno’s epochal anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–96). All four films were directed by Anno and animated at Studio Khara, which Anno founded in 2006. Thrice Upon A Time was released by Toho, Toei, and Khara.

It has outperformed the previous three films, taking 45.1% more in its first week than the last installment, 2012’s Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. According to Deadline, it also broke the record for an Imax opening day in Japan, taking $740,000.

However, it is still falling far short of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, which grossed $102 million in its first ten days last October, going on to top Japan’s all-time box office.

Then again, unlike Demon Slayer, Thrice Upon a Time opened amid a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, which cover almost one third of the country’s population. Theaters are operating with reduced hours in this region.