Your Name Anime Beats Fantastic Beasts At Chinese Box Office

It seems like Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them struggled to conjure up another winning weekend at the Chinese box office. JK Rowling’s magical film stalled abroad thanks to Japan’s hit movie, Your Name.

The anime feature Your Name entered China this weekend and is poised to take the box office’s top spot. The critically acclaimed film opened with more than 65,000 screenings which drew in 2.77 million moviegoers. The movie itself raked in $10.9 million on its opening Friday. Fantastic Beasts is expected to come in second place since the movie only earned $3.31 million. The Harry Potter spin-off has been in Chinese theaters for eight days so far and earned about $60 million overall.

With Your Name entering theaters, the box office saw a major shift in rankings. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children slid to third place and Allied dropped down to eighth.

While it may be surprising to see Fantastic Beasts get beat out by Your Name, it was expected by many fans. The anime film has been immensely popular and drawn countless comparisons to Studio Ghibli’s iconic work.

If you are not familiar with Your Name, then you should know the anime feature is the highest-grossing film of 2016 in Japan. The film raked in more than $170 million at the box office since it debut in August. It is also the first anime feature outside of Studio Ghibli’s control to gross more than $96 million at the Japanese box office. Your Name has already out-grossed the last two films from director Hayao Miyazaki: Ponyo and The Wind Rises. And, at the moment, Your Name is the 7th highest-grossing movie of all time in Japan.

For those of you who plan to see Your Name, then prepare to have your heart broken. The gorgeous film is a slow, nostalgic love story between two star-crossed lovers. The film follows two high school students after they discover they spontaneously switch bodies. Rather than panic, the pair find a way to work out their supernatural exchanges and begin to fall for one another. But, when the phenomena comes to an abrupt halt, the would-be lovers learn how cruel both fate and time can truly be.

Currently, Your Name is being considered as one of the Academy Awards nominees for Best Animated Feature alongside Finding Dory and more.

“We’re thrilled to have ‘Your Name.’ on the list of contenders for a Best Animated Feature nomination,” said Gen Fukunaga, CEO and founder of Funimation. “It is a masterpiece of animation from director Makoto Shinkai and is definitely worthy of Oscar consideration. We look forward to releasing it in theaters in 2017.”

Mike DuBoise, EVP and COO of Funimation, also commented on the film’s success. “‘Your Name.’ offers stunning animation, rich characters and a storyline that will tear at your heart strings — so it is no surprise it has been so well received by audiences. We’re incredibly excited to bring this Oscar-worthy film from Makoto Shinkai to audiences across the U.S. and Canada.”

[H/T] Variety