Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Drops New Stills to Celebrate the Movie’s Runaway Success

The producers of the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie have released a new set of images from the movie to celebrate its on-going success.

The new stills were released through the anime's official Twitter account, and depict the prequel movie's main protagonist, Yuta Okkotsu, alongside his new Jujutsu High classmates: the animalistic Panda, the Cursed-speech user Toge Inumaki and the powerful weapons specialist, Maki Zen'in. The images came alongside the announcement that Jujutsu Kaisen 0 has earned 7.7 billion yen (about $67 million USD,) in its first 18 days in theaters. Distributor Toho Co. Ltd. previously announced that it projected the film to earn 10 billion yen (roughly $85 million USD,) in its entire lifetime, a goal that it now seems guaranteed to surpass. For comparison, the highest grossing film in Japan in 2021 was Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon A Time, which earned the equivalent of $80 million yen during its entire theatrical run in theaters.

The anime movie was knocked out of the top spot for the weekend, however, by the Japanese release of another box-office success, Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter Parker's dimension-bending adventure has already earned $1.5 billion USD worldwide and is already repeating that success in Japan, where it achieved the biggest January opening weekend in Japanese film history.

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is set one year before the start of the main anime series, and consequently does not feature the show's usual protagonist, Yuji Itadori. Instead, it tells the story of Yuta Okkotsu, a young man who once promised to marry his childhood sweetheart, Rika Orimoto. Unfortunately for them both, Rika passes away at a young age, and her soul is transformed into a Curse, a monstrous supernatural being created by the negative emotions of humanity. Yuta is forced to avoid others in order to protect them with Rika's violently overprotective Curse, until he meets Satoru Gojo, a sorcerer who promises to teach Yuta how to use Rika's powers for good.

The movie's success is no surprise to anyone who has been following the franchise, as in three short years, Jujutsu Kaisen has become one of Japan's biggest entertainment franchises. The series was created by Gege Akutami and first published in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018. The supernatural battle manga was the best-selling series of 2021 in Japan, moving more than 30 million copies in the last 12 months, and achieving a total circulation of over 60 million copies worldwide. The series' anime adaptation, produced by Attack on Titan studio MAPPA, concluded its first season in early 2021 to rave reviews. The anime series is available on Crunchyroll and Funimation, while the manga is available in English from VIZ Media. An international release for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 has yet to be announced.

Source: Twitter