One Piece Film: Red Achieves the Biggest Opening Ever for a Japanese Anime in KSA
Riyadh, KSA, November 7th, 2022 – MENA-based distributor Front Row Filmed Entertainment has announced that its latest release, Toei Animation Inc.' One Piece Film: Red, the 15th film in the famed Anime series, has rocketed to the top of the box office charts in Saudi Arabia and achieved the biggest opening ever for a Japanese Anime in the market. The film finished the weekend at #1 ahead of DC's Black Adam.
One Piece Film: Red's opening weekend total (including previews) reached 61,000 admissions and a gross box office of $1.05 million, putting it 14% ahead of the previous record holder Jujutsu Kaisen 0 in terms of admissions, which debuted earlier this year, and 50% ahead of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. The film also had one of the biggest ever opening days for a PG-12 movie in the Kingdom and the 2nd biggest ever opening day for an animated film behind Universal's Minions: The Rise of Gru. For context, the opening day figures are higher than Universal's Jurassic World by 22% (also rated PG-12), 286% bigger than Sonic: The Hedgehog 2 and just 8% lower than Black Adam.
The movie has already become the franchise's highest selling film to date. In Japan, One Piece Film: Red became the highest grossing film of the year ahead of Top Gun: Maverick and is now the 6th biggest Anime of all time in the territory. The film also opened in North America via Crunchyroll/Sony this weekend with $4.7 Million on Friday (including previews).
Front Row has led the way in Anime distribution in recent years in the MENA, releasing several major properties including the previous One Piece Film, Stampede, Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Resurrection ‘F’, Attack on Titan: Chronicle and Makoto Shinkai's highly acclaimed Weathering With You amongst others. The company also represents the Studio Ghibli catalogue in the region and has also handled the release of several Anime series such as The Promised Neverland, Akudama Drive and many others.
“We are delighted to see how well One Piece Film: Red has performed this weekend,” said Eli Touma, Front Row's head of distribution. “Japanese Animes are incredibly popular in the Middle-East and particularly in Saudi Arabia and One Piece is the biggest property of them all. We're eager to continue feeding this audience as they've long been underserved in this region.”
The film also opened strongly across the Middle-East with over $400k grossed to date in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt. It is currently playing across all major cinema chains in the region in IMAX.
About Front Row Filmed Entertainment
Front Row Filmed Entertainment is a leading independent film distribution company that acquires all
rights for distribution in the Middle East and North Africa based in Dubai (UAE) and with offices in
Kuwait and Lebanon. Front Row was launched in 2003 by Gianluca & Michel Chakra and currently boasts
a film library of close to 1,000 titles. The company is also partnered with Kuwait National Cinema
Company (KNCC) and KSA's leading cinema chain, MUVI CINEMAS under the banner of Front Row
Arabia.
Front Row's recent releases include the Two-Time Academy Award Nominated THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, David Cronenberg's CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, the 6-time Academy Award nominated THE FATHER, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, ANNETTE, the opening film of the 74 th Cannes Film Festival, A24's THE GREEN KNIGHT starring Dev Patel, Paul Schrader's THE CARD COUNTER as well as the blockbuster action hit THE MARKSMAN, starring Liam Neeson. The company's upcoming slate includes Palme D'Or winner TRIANGLE OF SADNESS, Michael Gracey's Robbie Williams biopic, BETTER MAN and Samuel Jackson & Uma Thurman starrer THE KILL ROOM.
Since the launch of Saudi cinemas, Front Row has also released over 110 films theatrically and generally distributes over 120 films per year across all mediums.
