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Dragon Ball Super: Broly Film Earns Estimated US$7 Million on U.S. Opening Day (Update)

Entertainment news website Deadline reported on Thursday that the Dragon Ball Super: Broly anime film earned an estimate of over US$7 million on its general opening day in the United States, with a projected six-day earning of over US$15 million. The film opened on 1,440 screens including 180 IMAX and Cinemark XD screens on Wednesday. The film ranked at #1 in the U.S. box office for the day.

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', the previous film in the franchise, set Funimation Films' previous opening day record when it earned US$1.97 million on its opening day in the United States. Dragon Ball Super: Broly now holds the record. According to Funimation, the film set the record for biggest opening for an event film, and was the fifth highest earning anime theatrical opening of all time.

Funimation premiered the film's English dub at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on December 13. Alongside the general screenings on Wednesday, Funimation also screened the film in IMAX theaters on Wednesday only. The movie is the first anime film to screen in IMAX in the United States.

Vic Mignogna and Dameon Clarke returned as the English voices of Broly and Paragus, respectively, and Chris Ayres played Frieza. Other English dub cast members include Emily Neves as Gine (Goku's mother), Erica Lindbeck as Cheelai, Bruce Carey as Lemo, Veronica Taylor as Berryblue, and Sonny Franks as Kikono.

The film opened in Japan on December 14, and it sold more than 820,000 tickets and earned more than 1,050,000,000 yen (about US$9.26 million) in its first three days in Japan, topping the box office in its first weekend. Toei stated it anticipates the film will earn more than 5 billion yen (about US$44 million).

Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama wrote the script and designed the characters. Tatsuya Nagamine (One Piece Film Z) directed the film, Naohiro Shintani served as animation director, and Kazuo Ogura served as art director. Norihito Sumitomo composed the music, and Daichi Miura performed the film's theme song "Blizzard."

Source: Deadline (Anthony D'Alessandro)

Update: Deadline updated its estimate from US$5 million on opening day to more than US$7 million. Funimation Films announced more details on records in a press release.