News
Final Evangelion Film's Midnight Screenings Canceled Due to COVID-19
posted on by Egan Loo
The official Twitter account for the Evangelion franchise announced on Saturday that the midnight screenings of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time (Shin Evangelion Gekijō-ban :||), the new Evangelion film, have been canceled. The announcement cited the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the resulting declaration of a stage of emergency in at least four prefectures.
The announcement expressed sympathy to those infected with COVID-19, and gratitude and respect to medical workers and others on the frontline of the pandemic.
15 theaters in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Sapporo had planned to hold midnight screenings for the earliest opening day showings on January 23. In addition, the theaters with IMAX screens were planning to show the previous film, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, right before the midnight screening of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time. Those theaters have already been screening the updated IMAX version titled Evangelion: 3.333 You Can (Not) Redo from January 9 (delayed one day due to an IMAX audio issue) to January 22.
Due to COVID-19, few films have had midnight screenings for most of the past year, although Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train and Eiga Precure Miracle Leap: Minna to Fushigi na 1-nichi are among the films that began adding late-night screenings at midnight or later.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time will open on January 23 after a delay due to concerns over the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its spread inside and outside of Japan. The film was originally scheduled to open in Japan on June 27. Hikaru Utada returns to perform the theme song "One Last Kiss" for the film.
The first three films in the tetralogy, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone, Evangelion: 2.0 You Can [Not] Advance, and Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, debuted in 2007, 2009, and 2012 respectively.
The Japanese government declared a new state of emergency in Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa, and Chiba on Thursday, in response to the high rate of new infections of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The state of emergency will be in place from Friday, January 8 to Sunday, February 7. In addition, the Osaka, Hyogo, and Kyoto prefectures are asking the national government to expand the state of emergency to cover those prefectures as well.
During the state of emergency, Tokyo and neighboring prefectures have asked movie theaters to close by 8:00 p.m. every day, as well as limit their audiences to 50% of seating capacity.
Japan reported 7,101 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday. Tokyo alone reported 2,268 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, the third day with over 2,000 new cases. Japan also reported a record 827 people who are seriously ill with COVID-19.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history