Jujutsu Kaisen 0 has become Japan's #1 film of 2021 after selling 7,603,732 tickets for ¥10,456,322,400 (roughly US$90.6 million) in the 45 days since it first premiered. This now puts it ahead of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 as the highest-earning film at the Japanese box office for the 2021 calendar year.
The film currently stands as the 34th highest-earning film in Japanese box office history and has surpassed blockbuster films like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Toy Story 4, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in less than two months.
The highly popular prequel film has now become the 10th anime film to make more than ¥10 billion, as well as the 9th highest-grossing anime film in Japan of all time. It's worth noting that Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was technically released after the cutoff for the 2021 box office year according to box office reporter Kogyo Tsushinsha, but the film still stands as the highest-grossing Japanese film released that year.
Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (renamed from Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School) manga ran in Shueisha’s Jump GIGA magazine from April-July 2017. The series serves as a prequel to Akutami’s popular Jujutsu Kaisen series, which began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine in 2018. The series has amassed 18 collected volumes throughout its run so far. A free-to-play RPG developed by Sumzap was announced in June 2021, though nothing new regarding the project has been disclosed since.
MAPPA animated a 24-episode anime adaptation of the manga from October 2020-March 2021, with Sunghoo Park (Banana Fish, The God of High School) directing and Hiroshi Seko (Attack on Titan, Dorohedoro) serving as screenwriter.
MAPPA returned to animate Jujutsu Kaisen 0, alongside Park and Seko. The film stars Megumi Ogata (Evangelion’s Shinji Ikari, YuYu Hakusho’s Kurama) as Yuta Okkotsu, with Kana Hanazawa (Steins;Gate’s Mayuri Shiina, Psycho-Pass’ Akane Tsunemori) voicing Rika Orimoto.
VIZ Media licenses the manga in English alongside Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan, and VIZ Media owns the home video rights. Crunchyroll recently announced that they would be distributing Jujutsu Kaisen 0 in U.S. and Canadian theaters starting March 18. Tickets will go on sale starting February 25.
Source: Anime News Network