In its first three days, Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume (Suzume no Tojimari) film sold 1.33 million tickets and earned 1.88 billion yen (approximately US$13.49 million). The film earned 47.4% more money and sold 38.7% more tickets than his acclaimed Your Name movie which grossed 1,277,960,000 yen(approximately US$12.51 million) in its first three days. It also sold 14.8% more tickets and earned 14.4% more than Shinkai’s previous film, Weathering with You, marking Shinkai’s best three-day opening.
The movie opened last Friday in Japan and topped the box office chart.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Wild Bunch, and Crunchyroll will be releasing the film globally except in Asia in early 2023. Crunchyroll handles the distribution of the movie in North America. At the same time, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Crunchyroll will cover distribution in Latin America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East Africa, and portions of Europe.
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Suzume (Suzume no Tojimari) is about a 17-year-old girl named Suzume who lives in a quiet town in Kyushu, a southwestern region of Japan. The plot begins when Suzume meets a young man looking for a “door”. They journey together and find a weathered door in an abandoned house in the mountains. As if pulled by something, Suzume reaches for the doorknob and is pulled in. Suddenly, the “Doors of Disaster” begin to appear across Japan and started a series of disasters. Suzume travels throughout Japan to close and lock the “Doors of Disaster” one by one in order to stop disasters from happening.
Shinkai stated that the film’s three main points are that one, it is a road movie about Japan, two, it is a story about “closing doors” instead of opening them and third, it is a reason to go to the movies. He went on to say that closing doors can also mean trying up loose ends or finishing something.
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Suzume Iwato, the heroine of the movie, voiced by Nanoka Hara is an avid fan of Shinkai’s works. Sōta Munakata, the young man who embarks on a journey with Suzume is voiced by Hokuto Matsumura (live-action xxxHoLiC’s Shizuka Doumeki). The film Suzume is Matsumura’s voice acting debut role.
Shinkai is credited for the original story, film direction, and screenplay of the movie. He also wrote a novelization of the film that was published on August 24. Denki Amashima launched the manga adaptation in Kodansha’s Monthly Afternoon magazine on October 25.
Masayoshi Tanaka (Your Name, Weathering with You) designed the characters, while Kenichi Tsuchiya (Your Name, Garden of Words) was the animation director. Takumi Tanji (Children Who Chase Lost Voices) was the art director. Seattle-based Hollywood film composer, Kazuma Jinnouchi (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, RWBY: Ice Queendom) scored the film alongside RADWIMPS. The movie is produced by CoMix Wave Films and Story Inc., and TOHO is distributing it.
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