Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01: Thrice Upon A Time is no longer Japan's highest-grossing film of last year; Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is.
According to Oricon, Director Sunghoo Park's prequel to the critically acclaimed anime series has sold over seven million tickets and earned over 10.4 billion yen (roughly $90.6 million) since its theatrical debut. In comparison, Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01: Thrice Upon A Time's final box office was approximately 10.2 billion (about $89.5 million). It should be noted that while Jujutsu Kaisen 0 made most of its money in 2022, it was released on Dec. 24, 2021, which means it is now considered the highest grossing film to be released in that year.
Gege Akutami's ongoing Jujutsu Kaisen manga series was first published in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in March 2018. It tells the story of high schooler Yuji Itadori who joins a group of Jujutsu Sorcerers to defeat Ryomen Sukuna, the undisputed King of Curses. With over 60 million copies sold globally, the series is one of the best-selling manga of all time.
Studio MAPPA adapted the story into an anime series, which premiered in October 2020 and won several awards at the 5th annual Crunchyroll awards, including Anime of the Year and Best Antagonist. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is a prequel story that is set one year before the events of the main storyline. Many voice actors from the anime reprised their roles for the film, including Yūichi Nakamura (My Hero Academia) as Satoru Gojō, Tomokazu Seki (Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia) as Panda and Kōki Uchiyama (Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut) as Toge Inumaki.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0's impressive box office isn't the only entry in the franchise that has garnered large sales numbers and amounts of attention. Volumes 13 and 0 of the manga earned top spots on the New York Times bestsellers list for graphic novels and manga earlier this year, placing 10th and 13th respectively. The Jujutsu Kaisen anime was one of the most talked-about shows on Twitter in 2021, placing second behind the Brazilian version of Big Brother and surpassing other smash hits of the past year like the Marvel Cinematic Universe's WandaVision and Netflix's Squid Game.
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 is scheduled to premiere in the United States and Canada on March 18. The anime series is available to stream on Funimation, HBO Max and Crunchyroll.
Source: Oricon, via Anime News Network
