Film has sold 630,000 tickets, double the previous record holder, Gundam: Hathaway
Shochiku announced on Monday that the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM anime film has sold 634,182 tickets for 1,065,983,130 yen (about US$7.20 million) in its first three days. This marks the Gundam franchise‘s highest three-day opening in box office earnings, and the biggest opening weekend for a film so far this year in Japan. The film topped Japan’s box office for the weekend.
Starting on February 2 and going until February 8 (or until they sell out), those who see the film in theaters will get a booklet featuring character and mech design settings.
© 創通・サンライズ
© 創通・サンライズ
The film opened in Japan on Friday. The film is planned to screen in 56 countries and territories.
The previous record holder, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, sold 259,074 tickets for 523,943,800 yen (about US$4.77 million at the time) in its first three days at the box office in June 2021. It ranked at #3 (in terms of tickets sold) in its opening weekend. The film became the first Gundam film since 1988’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack to top the 1 billion yen mark, and earned a total of 2.23 billion yen (about US$15.1 million by current conversion).
The 1982 Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space anime film holds the record for highest Japanese box office revenue in the Gundam franchise with a total of about 2.3 billion yen (US$15.5 million by current conversion).
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda directed the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) designed the characters.
Takanori Nishikawa (the artist also known as T.M. Revolution) performs the film’s theme song “Freedom” with producer t.komuro (Tetsuya Komuro). See-Saw returned to the franchise to perform the ending song “Sarigiwa no Romantics” (Romantics Upon Parting), the first new music from the duo in two decades.
Source: Press release
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
