Hayao Miyazaki’s latest anime film: The Boy and the Heron (née How Do You Live?) just recently hit theaters in Japan on July 14, 2023. So perhaps you might be curious about how it performed at the box office over there? You know, because it’s also Miyazaki’s final anime film before his official retirement? Well, as you can see by the title, the anime film did spectacularly well in its home nation. To the tune of well over 5 billion yen, no less.

The Boy and the Heron (How Do You Live?): Box Office Details

The Boy and the Heron (How Do You Live?) promotional art.
Well, at least we know why there’s a heron in this promotional art…kind of.

Japanese news website Mantan Web has just revealed how The Boy and the Heron (originally How Do You Live?) did at the Japanese box office. And the short answer is: very, very, VERY well indeed.

As for the long answer? The Boy and the Heron managed to gross ¥5.48 billion yen at the Japanese box office. When you convert that into US dollars, that works out to $38.14 million USD as of the current exchange rate at the time of this writing. Now granted, it doesn’t sound like a lot compared to the big-name films like Avatar: The Way of Water or even big anime films like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. But remember the context.

Consider that The Boy and the Heron has had no marketing whatsoever. Apparently, Hayao Miyazaki wanted his final anime film to see a release free of any marketing or advertising. We don’t have a trailer, cast, or even a synopsis for it. Miyazaki seems to really want his audiences to be completely and utterly surprised when they eventually see this anime film in theaters. Fortunately, though, Oricon did reveal that we’ll get a theater pamphlet for this anime film on August 11, 2023; which will hopefully give us a synopsis when it releases. Tune back in to THS later to find out the contents of that pamphlet when we do.

Source: Mantan Web, Oricon