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Spirited Away's Chinese Screening Earns 195 Million Yuan, Ranks at #1

The first theatrical screening of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away anime film in China opened on June 21, and earned 195 million yuan (about 3 billion yen or US$28.36 million) from Friday to Sunday. The movie ranked #1 in China for the weekend, above Toy Story 4, which opened in the same weekend.

My Neighbor Totoro opened theatrically in China last December as the first Studio Ghibli film to receive a theatrical release in the country. The screening earned a total of 173 million yuan (about US$25.75 million) in China, and was the second-highest earning Japanese film in China in 2018. However, it had earned only 159 million yuan (about US$23.67 million) when 2018 ended. Before the film's theatrical screening, Studio Ghibli said that it planned to release other films in China if My Neighbor Totoro was successful.

Spirited Away was previously the highest-grossing anime film worldwide until January 2017, when Makoto Shinkai's your name. surpassed the record. The film remains the only non-English-language title to win the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature award, which it earned in 2003.

GKIDS and Fathom Events will screen the film again in October as part of this year's "Studio Ghibli Fest 2019" screenings. The companies previously screened the film in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Walt Disney Pictures previously released the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, and GKIDS re-released the film on Blu-ray Disc in October 2017. The film premiered in North America in 2002.

Sources: Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo), Variety (Rebecca Davis)