As the year winds down and Hollywood’s focus shifts to the triumphs and defeats of the awards circuit, the most surprising upset of the season has instead taken place at the box office.
This past weekend, Hayao Miyazaki’s probably-final-but-we-never-really-know-do-we film The Boy and the Heron flew away with the No 1 spot, besting the IP vehicles Trolls Band Together and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as both slowed in their fourth week of release. However, the latest marvel from Studio Ghibli may have benefited from a sparseness of competition, the $12.8m take in stateside cinemas attests to the enduring popularity of a name synonymous with the highest standard of brilliance in anime.
