Anime: ‘Sword Art Online’ Movie Tops Japanese Box Office
The Sword Art Online Progressive movie Aria of a Starless Night tops Japanese box offices in its opening week– and it’s and coming soon to international theaters.
Based on the light novels by Reki Kawahara, Sword Art Online: Progressive is an expanded retelling of the Sword Art Online Aincrad story. The popular anime series has been a favorite of Japanese, American, and international audiences since 2012.
And this week, that popularity proved itself on Saturday when the film premiered in standard and IMAX theaters. It earned a staggering 349 million yen, about $3,063,000 USD, and topped the Japanese box office in its opening weekend.
Funimation will present the film in standard and IMAX theaters to North American audiences on December 3rd. Australia and New Zealand will get the film on December 9th. Funimation has promised releases for the U.K., Ireland, and Latin America, but dates have yet to be announced.
Aria of a Starless Night is expected to open in over forty countries and territories worldwide. And if the popularity of anime movies like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia are any indication, we should expect to see commercial success on a worldwide level.
Sword Art Online: Progressive via Funimation:
“The day that she happened to don the NerveGear, Asuna Yuuki was a third-year middle school student who’d never even touched an online game before. On November 6, 2022, the world’s first VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, is officially launched. But the players, still euphoric over having logged in, suddenly find themselves trapped inside the game when the Game Master deprives them of any way to log out.
The Game Master then gives them this warning “This may be a game, but it’s not something you play.” If a player dies in-game, they die in the real world.
Hearing this, all of the players panic, and pandemonium reigns. One of those players is Asuna, but despite not yet knowing the rules of this world, she sets off to conquer the floating iron castle, Aincrad, whose peak is too high to be seen. As the days go by in this world where death is never very far away, she has a fateful encounter. And then, a parting…
Though she’s at the mercy of the reality before her eyes, Asuna fights on with all her might until someone appears before her: the aloof swordsman, Kirito…”
Aria of a Starless Night is directed by Ayako Kohno (The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky) and Kento Toya (Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of the Underworld). Action direction is by Yasuyuki Kai (My Hero Academia THE MOVIE: World Heroes’ Mission), and the score composed by Yuki Kajiura (Demon Slayer).
Will you be watching Aria of a Starless Night in theaters or waiting for a streaming release? Do you prefer anime movies in standard theaters or the IMAX experience? Have you read the Sword Art Online light novels? Let us know in the comments!
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