PHOTO: Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘THE BOY AND THE HERON’ has passed $100M worldwide

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘THE BOY AND THE HERON’ has passed $100M worldwide.

Inspired by a novel by Genzaburō Yoshino, The Boy and the Heron is the story of a troubled child who ends up in a mysterious fantasy realm after his mother dies, and follows Miyazaki’s last film The Wind Rises, after which Miyazaki “retired” in 2013. Miyazaki is yet to make a statement over any future projects, but a recent Guardian report from Studio Ghibli in Tokyo, the director’s production base, suggested that rumours of this being his final film are indeed true: the studio has no films on its slate and all production activity appears to have ceased.

Another Japanese movie lands at #3, Godzilla Minus One, holding in at the same spot it nabbed last weekend. It took in an additional $8.3M to bring its total to $25.3M. It also takes the crown for the highest-grossing live-action Japanese movie in the U.S. and Canada.

In fourth place is this fall’s animated champ, Trolls Band Together, which generated an additional $6.2M, bringing its total to $83M. The #5 spot went to Disney’s Wish which generated an additional $5.3M to bring its domestic total to $49.4M. Globally, it has passed the $100M mark, which is something of a triumph for a film that is underperforming as much as this one is.

The Boy and the Heron was released in Japan in July with almost no promotion other than a single poster image, with producer Toshio Suzuki commenting at the time that “Deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire.” It has since earned over ¥8.2bn ($56.2m) in its home country.