“Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time,” the fourth film in the Rebuild of Evangelion sci-fi anime series created and co-directed by Anno Hideaki, has earned $30.6 million from 2.2 million admissions in its first week on release, according to distributor figures released on Monday.
Bowing on March 8 on 466 screens, the film has grabbed 45% more at the box office than the third “Rebuild of Evangelion” film, “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo,” which had a opened in 2012 and finished with $48.6 million.
Also, its first-day take of $7.6 million on 540,000 admissions beat the previous film’s by 24%, despite opening on a Monday instead of the Japanese industry standard Saturday.
But impressive as these numbers are, they do not match up to those of last year’s mega-hit anime, “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train.” Opening on 403 screens on Oct. 16., 2020, it scored a first-day gross of $12 million and went to top $100 million within ten days. As of March 13, its cumulative total was $352 million, an all-time record for the Japanese box office.
The four “Rebuild” films are a reworking of the original “Neon Genesis Evangelion” anime television series, which was broadcast on TV Tokyo in 1995 and 1996. The first, “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone,” was released in Japan in 2007 and finished with $20 million. The fourth and last, a joint release by Toho, Toei and Anno’s Studio Khara, is expected to be the highest earning of the four.