Funimation and Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly is closing in on nearly $100 million in box office receipts worldwide.
The film which debuted in the United States earlier this month has brought in close to $30 million stateside alone. When the film debuted on January 16th, it raked in $11.9 million and would go on take the fourth biggest movie of the weekend. In fact, Dragon Ball Super: Broly has already crushed Fox’s live-action Dragonball: Evolution which only grossed $9.3 million domestically and $57 million worldwide.
The film is the third highest grossing anime film of all time behind two Pokemon movies, Pokemon: The First Movie and Pokemon: The Movie 2000. It’s currently the highest grossing film for Funimation which recently saw success with their [easyazon_link identifier=”B07LDC9MR3″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]My Hero Academia: Two Heroes[/easyazon_link] film that debuted in September. The film brought in a little over $5 million in a limited release.
While the success of Dragon Ball Super: Broly surprised a number of people, Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro described it as one of “two big shockers” over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, it shouldn’t.
Dragon Ball Super is a wildly popular television show that saw nearly 1 million people tune in to see each episode last Spring on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on Saturdays. To put that in perspective, the latest episode of The CW’s Supergirl brought in 1.3 million people. Dragon Ball Super has a dedicated fanbase. Not only do they have a dedicated fanbase, but I would bet there is a latent fanbase too, and the movie was able to appeal to that. That latent fanbase is from the kids who are now in their 20s and 30s who grew up watching Cartoon Network’s Dragon Ball Z.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly would not only continue the storyline set out in the popular television show, but it also delved back into the past and explored the destruction of Planet Vegeta and the ensuing consequences.
Here’s the official description:
“A planet destroyed, a powerful race reduced to nothing. After the devastation of Planet Vegeta, three Saiyans were scattered among the stars, destined for different fates. While two found a home on Earth, the third was raised with a burning desire for vengeance and developed an unbelievable power. And the time for revenge has come. Destinies collide in a battle that will shake the universe to its very core!
Goku is back to training hard so he can face the most powerful foes the universes have to offer, and Vegeta is keeping up right beside him. But when they suddenly find themselves against an unknown Saiyan, they discover a terrible, destructive force.”
It also probably doesn’t hurt that the film has good word of mouth. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes has it at an astounding 94%.
Dragon Ball Super: Broly is still in theaters and my bet is that it will cross over that $100 million mark.
With the success of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and other animated films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the LEGO movies, I would not be surprised to see a number of studios investing in high quality animation films. In fact, a recent report indicates Warner Bros. might actually be looking at a Batman Beyond feature in the future.