One Piece has had a long list of movies since the anime’s debut in 1999. Titles such as Stampede, Gold, and The Cursed Holy Sword were a hit in Japan. However, only one film from the franchise has grabbed a spot in the ‘top 100 box office grossers of all time’, namely One Piece Film: Red.
Released in August 2022, One Piece Red is a musical action-adventure animated film with a plot centered on Red-Haired Shanks and Monkey D. Luffy. Both Mayumi Tanaka and Shuuichi Ikaeda reprised their voice roles of Luffy and Shanks, respectively. The film also featured Uta, daughter of Shanks and the possessor of Uta Uta no Mi Devil Fruit powers, played by Japanese singer Ado.
One Piece Red Surpassed Princess Monosuke To Become 7th Highest-Grossing Film In Japan Of All Time
Upon its release in 2022, One Piece Film: Red eventually became the highest-grossing One Piece film and subsequently the highest-grossing film in Japan in that year. The film by Toei Animation ended its box office run in January 2023 with 19.7 billion yen. Re-screenings have made the movie surpass Princess Monosuke’s record after managing to transcend the 200 billion yen mark.
According to a report by box office sales tracker Kogyo Tsushin, One Piece Film: Red has recently captured the seventh position among the highest-grossing films in Japan with 202.7 billion yen. It beat the previous holder of the position, Princess Monosuke, by 900 million yen. The 1997 film by Hayao Miyazaki used to be at the top of the list until James Cameron’s Titanic and another Miyazaki film, Spirited Away, dethroned it, in a span of four years.
One Piece Film: Red is now close to surpassing the total box office for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone which is sitting at 203 billion yen. After that, there is a steep climb ahead because What is Your Name, Titanic, and Frozen are standing in the range of 250-270 billion yen.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie Mugen Train still holds the top spot for the highest-grossing film in Japan. It dethroned Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away (316.8 billion yen) after 19 years, becoming the first film to cross the 400 billion yen mark.
More About One Piece Film: Red
After over two years of script writing by Eiichiro Oda, Goro Taniguchi, and Tsutomu Kuroiwa, One Piece Film: Red was released to critical acclaim on August 6, 2022. It became the overall third film to make over 1 billion yen on the opening box office day. After the 10th day of its release, Red became the highest-grossing movie in the One Piece franchise by overtaking One Piece Film: Z.
Directed by Goro Taniguchi, One Piece Red features a brief reunion between Luffy and Shanks on the island of Elegia. The Straw Hat Pirates also meet Uta, a singer who left her adopted father Shanks twelve years ago to pursue her dream job.
Also Read: Eiichiro Oda Pays Homage to Shanks’ Crew Upon their Much-Awaited Return in the One Piece Film
While Uta brings the musical elements in the film, the tag team of Luffy and Shanks brings the fighting theme as they take on a convoy of battleships led by Admirals Kizaru and Fujitora. The World Government deemed Uta a threat because of her connections with Shanks and her powerful display of the Sing-Sing Devil Fruit powers against a bunch of pirates.
Uta has the power to trap people in her dream world with the help of the Sing-Sing Fruit. Unfortunately, her powers take a turn for the worse, as it awakened a monstrous entity named ‘Tot Musica’ that was sealed under Elegia years ago. Together with Luffy and Shanks, Uta battles Tot and fleets of Marines before sacrificing herself in order to save the world.
