Jujutsu Kaisen 0 has already made a lot of money, but the movies producers are hoping a new poster giveaway will help it make even more.
As reported by Comic Natalie, starting on Jan. 22, Japanese theater goers who purchase a movie ticket to the Jujutsu Kaisen movie will be given a new bonus: a new poster featuring art of the movie's main character, Yuta Okkotsu. The poster is a "clean" version of one of the film's promotional posters, which features an unadorned look at the original artwork without any logos or credits over it. The poster will be the first in a series of new bonuses given out by distributor Toho Co. Ltd., as two more as-yet-unannounced freebies are scheduled to be released to ticket buyers who see the movie after Feb. 5 and Feb. 19 respectively. The new bonuses are being given a staggered release to encourage hardcore fans to see the movie multiple times.
The new promo will undoubtedly help ticket sales, but the movie was already doing just fine without the freebies: Jujutsu Kaisen 0 had the second biggest opening weekend in Japanese film history and has already pulled in over 8.5 billion yen (about $75 million USD) in order a month. Toho Co. Ltd. originally projected the film with a lifetime gross of 10 billion yen (approximately $85 million USD), a goal it now seems guaranteed to shatter long before its theatrical run comes to an end. In less than a month, the movie has earned more than most of the highest grossing movies from Japan in 2021.
The practice of giving out freebies or even adding content to the original film in order to encourage additional ticket purchases isn't new in Japan, especially in regards to anime releases. Last summer, Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Time released a newly revised version of the film that featured a few scenes with newly redone animation. The revision caused a spike in ticket sales that helped the Evangelion finale become the highest grossing film of the year. Other shonen anime, such as the latest My Hero Academia movie, World Heroes' Mission, have given out exclusive manga chapters with a ticket purchase. Several American anime distributors, including Funimation, have also started giving out these bonuses for some of their theatrical releases.
An international release for Jujutsu Kaisen 0 has yet to be announced. The first season of the anime series is available to be streamed from Crunchyroll or Funimation. Gege Akutami's original manga is available in English from VIZ Media.
Source: Comic Natalie
