As anime Your Name comes out on home video, did it manage to beat Frozen at the box office?

Makoto Shinkai’s anime juggernaut was chasing the Disney hit, but which film pulled in the bigger audience at theaters?

Movies in general don’t make the transition from theaters to home video as quickly in Japan as they do in the U.S., but the wait for director Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name has been especially long. Upon its theatrical release on August 26, 2016, Your Name reverberated with audiences in a way no one expected, and with a near-unanimously positive response from critics and phenomenally strong word of mouth from movie-goers, the anime’s theatrical run lasted for several months.

But July 26 is the big day when Your Name finally becomes available on Blu-ray and DVD. Since its trickling theatrical revenue flow is going to cease entirely very soon, let’s take a look at where Your Name ended up on the all-time for Japanese box office revenue.

We’ve covered some of Your Name’s achievements before, such as becoming the only non-Hayao Miyazaki anime o ever gross more than 10 billion yen (approximately US$90 million) in domestic earnings and blowing past every individual installment in the Harry Potter, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars franchises. When last we checked in on Shinkai’s masterpiece, it was looking to surpass every Disney feature as well as it closed in on Frozen’s final tally.

But unfortunately for anyone looking to champion Japanese anime over Western cartoons, Elsa and Anna have proven to be too much for Your Name Taki and Mitsuha to overcome.

Japan’s Cinema Ranking Tsushin reports that Your Name’s Japanese box office earnings now stand at 25.03 billion yen (roughly US$225.495 million), which isn’t quite enough to pass Frozen’s 25.5 billion. Granted, Your Name isn’t entirely gone from Japanese theaters. In Tokyo, for example, it’s still playing at exactly one venue, Cinema Rosa in the Ikebukuro neighborhood. With those Blu-rays coming out, though, it won’t be long until the only way to watch Your Name is at home, and there’s simply not enough time for Shinkai’s anime to earn another 500 million yen at the box office.

Still, Your Name still has the honor of being the fourth highest-grossing movie ever in Japan, trailing only Spirited Away (30.8 billion yen), Titanic (26.2 billion yen), and Frozen. It’s also the highest-grossing anime film ever internationally, so fans will still have plenty of successes to toast while dining together on the Your Name Tokyo cafe bus tour.

Source: Cinema Ranking Tsushin via Jin
Images: Your Name official website

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