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Weathering With You Film Ships on BD/DVD in N. America on September 15
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
GKIDS and Shout! Factory announced on Tuesday that they will release Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You anime film on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in North America on September 15. A limited-edition Collector's Set will ship in November. They will also release the film digitally on August 4.
GKIDS describes the anime's story:
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strongwilled girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky...
Fathom Events screened the film in theaters in the United States on January 15 and 16. The screenings were a "Special Fan Preview" with exclusive bonus content before GKIDS opened the film in North America on January 17. The screenings starting last Friday have both English-subtitled screenings and English-dubbed screenings.
The film debuted in North America on January 15 and ranked #2 in the box office in North America in its first two days. The anime fell to #12 on Friday, and to #14 and #13 on Saturday and Sunday to rank #13 for the weekend (higher than the previously projected #14). The film earned US$2,233,722 (higher than the original estimate of US$2,007,523) from Friday to Monday (including US$425,189 instead of the estimated US$276,151 for Monday) in 486 theaters, and has earned a total of US$5,279,972 (instead of the estimated US$5,053,773) in its first six days. The Box Office Mojo website reported that the film has earned a total of US$7,798,743 in North America.
Weathering With You became the highest-grossing release from the distributor GKIDS after its first two days in event screenings, topping Mary and The Witch's Flower's US$2,418,404. After the higher finalized total for the previous weekend, it has also earned more than Shinkai's previous film, your name., in North America. The film had 4DX screenings in North America beginning on January 31.
Some theaters in Japan reopened in mid-May, and Weathering With You ranked at #2 at the box office that weekend. The film remained at #2 this past weekend.
The anime film originally opened in 359 theaters and 448 screens in Japan last July, and is now the #7 highest-earning domestic film of all time in Japan and was the highest-grossing film in Japan in 2019. The film has earned 14.02 billion yen (about US$129 million) in Japan as of December 8.
The anime won the Audience Award at the Animation Is Film Festival in Los Angeles in October, and also won the Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia on November 21. The film received a nomination but did not win in the Best Animated Independent Feature category for the 47th Annual Annie Awards. The anime won the Animation of the Year award at the 43rd annual Japan Academy Prizes on March 6. The film is also nominated in the Media category of the 51st Seiun Awards.
Source: Press release
