Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has made its theatrical debut in the US, and it topped the box office with $21 million! That’s a great win for the franchise – especially since Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero hasn’t had the smoothest debut over in Japan. Super Hero opened lower than previous Dragon Ball films Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Resurrection F, and Battle of Gods, and had a 55% drop-off in week 2, losing the top spot at the box office to Top Gun: Maverick. Analysts have pointed to several reasons why Super Hero isn’t doing so well in Japan, including the film being leaked online, delaying its theatrical release.
So how is Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero comparing to other big anime movie releases in North America? Let’s break it down:
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Dragon Ball Super: Broly
The previous Dragon Ball Super movie release seems like a great place to start. Dragon Ball Super: Broly earned $9.8M in its three-day opening weekend in America in January 2019 – $11.94M over the four-day MLK holiday. It earned $22.7M in its first six days, ultimately finishing its domestic run with $30.7M. Broly touted the advantage to being the first big anime IMAX release in the US, which definitely helped draw a crowd.
Comparatively, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has earned an estimated $22.6M over its first five days of release. That’s clearly a bigger opening than Dragon Ball Super: Broly, by significant margin. But Broly was all the way back in 2019 – so how does Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s release to some of the more recent anime movie releases?
Jujutsu Kaisen 0
The prequel to the popular new Jujutsu Kaisen anime was released in US theaters in March of 2022. It was only projected to open to anywhere from $8-13M, but shot passed that to and opening weekend haul of $17.7M. That’s short of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero’s opening, clearly, but Jujutsu Kaisen is a new anime, whereas Dragon Ball is the most iconic anime in the world right now. If nothing else, the box office proximity in their respective theatrical openings speaks to how anime, as a genre, is becoming a box office draw.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train
Demon Slayer’s Mugen Train movie was released in April of 2021, and grossed $19.5M in North American markets in its opening weekend – setting the record for biggest opening for any foreign-language film in the region. The fact that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has now surpassed that opening weekend number means it is a bonafide record-setter itself.
My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is one of the other biggest crossover anime hits out there – and has certainly been making a dedicated run at the US box office. My Hero Academia: Two Heroes was the first theatrical release (September 2018) and earned $2.6M in its three-day opening between Wednesday and Friday, and $5.6M in its first week of release in US theaters.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019) earned $5.1M in its opening weekend in US theaters, and $8.5M in its first five days, showing significant gains for the franchise, film-over-film. My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission (2021) continued that upward trend with $6.4M in its opening weekend. Still, as popular as MHA is, it’s clearly not a box office draw on the level of Dragon Ball Super.
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Clearly Dragon Ball is still sitting pretty at the top of the anime genre when it comes to overseas box office viability. It’s arguably even more of a testament to the strength of the Dragon Ball franchise as a whole that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is doing so well in the US with “secondary characters” like Gohan and Piccolo as the leads instead of Goku and Vegeta. It’s been theorized that the change in main characters hurt Super Hero’s popularity in Japan – but with American audiences who grew up with Dragon Ball Z, it’s clearly not an issue.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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