Above all of the movies that came out, Neon Genesis Evangelion earned the spot of Japan’s highest-earning movie of 2021. As of today, the movie has earned over 10.2 billion yen (about $89.5 million) during its time in Japanese theaters. Second place to the top earnings of this year went to Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet. The tenth place for the highest-earning movie went to the My Hero Academia: World’ Heroes’ Mission. Despite coming in third place, World Heros‘ ranked the best against the other two movies in the series.
The Evangelion Movie: Animation at the Top
The full list of Japan’s highest-grossing movies of 2021 is as follows:
- Evangelion 3.0 +1.01: Thrice Upon a Time
- Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet
- Belle
- Tokyo Revengers
- Rurouni Kenshin Saishuushou: The final
- The Untold Tale of the Three Kingdoms
- Arashi Anniversary Tour 5×20 Film
- We Made a Beautiful Bouquet
- Masquerade Night
- My Hero Academia: World Heros Mission
While four of the top ten movies were anime, two more of the movies were based on manga. The live-action Tokyo Revengers was the highest-earning non-anime movie of the year, earning about 4.47 billion yen.
With the Evangelion movie topping the charts this year, fans can expect to see more from the wildly popular mecha series. Creator Hideki Aono hinted that the series may continue in the future, just without him at the lead. He also stated that while the main story with Shinji is complete, there are more stories to be told that fill in timeline gaps. Lastly, Aono stated that he plans to make more live-action movies before making a full return to animation.
