One Piece Film Gold Opens Big for Its First Weekend, May Surpass One Piece Film Z

The One Piece franchise has done it again. For the opening weekend of One Piece Film Gold, it already garnered 1.15 billion yen (approx. US$10.87 million).

This is quite the feat, especially since it also comes with some intense numbers, such as setting the record for most sold tickets on an opening day for the year at over 478,500 tickets. Additionally, Anime News Network reported that it had already been shown in over 743 screens, with the total tickets sold for the entire weekend adding up to a grand total of 820,830.

Studio Toei is already projecting that One Piece Film Gold will fare better than its predecessor,One Piece Film Z. From the screen time alone, it already has it beaten by a week. The previous film was showcased for a three-week period during winter break in 2012. This time,One Piece Film Gold will be shown for four weeks off the summer break, with additional screenings for 3D, 4DX and MX4D screenings.

As far as projections go, Toei is already very optimistic that One Piece Film Gold will potentially surpass the 6.87 billion yen or US$64.64 million gross that the earlier film earned.

Non-Japanese speaking fans who are in Japan anytime between July 23 to Aug. 5 can enjoy a screening in five cities featuring English and Chinese subtitles. If you aren’t in Japan in any of those dates, One Piece Film Gold is still coming to 33 countries this year.