Bleach: The Calamity Tops $3 Million at the US Box Office

A top-10 theatrical run

The limited theatrical release of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Calamity landed in the US box-office top 10 and grossed more than $3 million in its opening days, according to a post from VIZ Media. The distributor framed the result as a milestone for the final chapter of the Bleach anime, the long-running franchise built around Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki.

Box-office trackers put a finer point on the figure. Box Office Mojo lists the screening at roughly $3.3 million across a June 25 to June 29 run in about 943 theaters, and Anime News Network reported the event surpassing the $3 million mark. Multiple outlets note the film opened at number eight on its first day, an unusually high placement for a limited anime event that reached only a fraction of the screens a wide release commands.

What played in theaters

The screenings were not the full finale. VIZ Media and Fathom Entertainment brought the first three episodes of The Calamity to US theaters over the five-day window, offered in Japanese with English subtitles and in an English dub. According to reporting on the event, the presentation paired the episodes with an exclusive behind-the-scenes conversation featuring original manga creator Tite Kubo, chief series director Tomohisa Taguchi and series director Hikaru Murata.

That packaging helps explain the per-theater strength. Spread across roughly 943 locations, a $3.3 million gross works out to an average near $3,500 per screen, a healthy number for an event run, and a notable one given that the same episodes reach streaming within weeks.

Why the number matters

Anime theatrical events have become a reliable draw in North America, but a top-10 finish still signals unusual demand. The Calamity is the fourth and final cours of the Thousand-Year Blood War adaptation, the arc that follows The Separation and The Conflict and closes out a story that Studio Pierrot has spent years bringing back to screens. A strong ticketed debut ahead of streaming suggests the audience for that conclusion is willing to pay for it in a theater first.