It has outperformed the previous three films, taking 45.1% more in its first week than the last installment, 2012’s Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. According to Deadline, it also broke the record for an Imax opening day in Japan, taking 0,000.
However, it is still falling far short of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, which grossed 2 million in its first ten days last October, going on to top Japan’s all-time box office.
Then again, unlike Demon Slayer, Thrice Upon a Time opened amid a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, which cover almost one third of the country’s population. Theaters are operating with reduced hours in this region.
Thrice Upon A Time opened on 446 screens on March 8 — a Monday, unconventionally — taking .6M on its first day. Long in the works, the film was initially slated to open on June 27, 2020, but was delayed to January 23, 2021, then again to March 8, because of the pandemic.