My Neighbor Totoro was finally released in China last December as the country’s first Ghibli film, but how well has it performed?
Well, as of last weekend, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s classic anime film has earned a total of 173 million yuan (about US$25.75 million) in China. Wow.
The film was the second-highest earning Japanese film in China in 2018, but had earned only 159 million yuan (about US$23.67 million) when 2018 ended. The film ranked just below Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Takarajima, which earned 209 million yuan (about US$31.11 million).
The film opened in China on December 14, and is the first Studio Ghibli film to receive a theatrical release in China. Chinese distributor SCLA released the digitally remastered version in China, and the film is available both with subtitles and with a Chinese dub. And as we have reported before, Studio Ghibli plans to release other films in China if the My Neighbor Totoro release is successful, which considering the results, seems to be a rather likely prospect.
Last year, the film celebrated the 30th anniversary of its release in Japan in 1988.