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Image via Toho
Just when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania finally had something going for it, Makoto Shinkai had to come swooping in and steal it away with surprisingly marked overkill.
Indeed, the anime filmmaker’s recent hot streak, which currently boasts the likes of such powerhouse features as Your Name and Weathering with You, has continued with Suzume, which just snagged the distinction of having the highest-grossing opening weekend at the Chinese box office outside of the Chinese New Year holiday.
Per Variety, the film grossed the equivalent of $49.6 million over the course of its opening weekend, which far surpasses the previous record set by Quantumania; a relatively measly $19.4 million. The film’s success in China mirrors that of its fortune in fellow Asian markets as well, grossing $108 million of its box office total in its native Japan alone, while also currently being the second-highest grossing film of 2023 in South Korea.
Suzume entails the plight of Suzume Iwato, a 17-year-old high school student who possesses the ability to sense supernatural forces that are invisible to others, among them a series of mysterious, door-shaped portals that allow harrowing disasters to spread across Japan. With the help of mysterious new ally Sōta Munakata, a man who is quickly transformed into a small chair (this is an anime film, after all), Suzume travels across the land, determined to shut every door before the chaos engulfs Japan beyond the point of saving.
For those of you looking to get in on all the buzz, Suzume will release to theaters in the United States and other international territories on April 14.