Box office and theatrical release
Spirited Away was released theatrically in Japan on 20 July 2001 by distributor Toho. It grossed a record ¥1.6 billion ($13.1 million) in its first three days, beating the previous record set by Princess Mononoke.[49] It was number one at the Japanese box office for its first eleven weeks and spent 16 weeks there in total.[50] After 22 weeks of release and after grossing $224 million in Japan, it started its international release, opening in Hong Kong on 13 December 2001.[51] It was the first film that had grossed more than $200 million at the worldwide box office excluding the United States.[52][53] It went on to gross ¥30.4 billion to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan.[54] It also set the all-time attendance record in Japan, surpassing the 16.8 million tickets sold by Titanic.[55] Its gross at the Japanese box office has since increased to ¥31.68 billion, as of 2020.[56][57]
In February 2002, Wild Bunch, an international sales company that had recently spun off from its former parent StudioCanal, picked up the international sale rights for the film outside of Asia and France.[58] The company would then on-sell it to independent distributors across the world. On 13 April 2002, The Walt Disney Company acquired the Taiwanese, Singapore, Hong Kong, French and North American sale rights to the film, alongside Japanese Home Media rights.[59]
Disney's English dub of the film, supervised by Lasseter, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2002[60] and was later released in the United States on 20 September 2002. The film grossed $450,000 in its opening weekend from 26 theatres. Spirited Away had very little marketing, less than Disney's other B-films, with a maximum of 151 theatres showing the film in 2002.[19] After the 2003 Oscars,[61] it expanded to 714 theatres. It ultimately grossed around $10 million by September 2003.[62] Outside of Japan and the United States, the movie was moderately successful in both South Korea and France where it grossed $11 million and $6 million, respectively.[63] In Argentina, it is in the top 10 anime films with the most tickets sold.[64]
In the United Kingdom, then-independent based film distributor Optimum Releasing acquired the rights to the movie from Wild Bunch in January 2003.[65] The company then released it theatrically on 12 September 2003.[66][67] The movie grossed $244,437 on its opening weekend from 51 theatres, and by the end of its theatrical run in October, the movie has grossed $1,383,023 in the country.[68]
About 18 years after its original release in Japan, Spirited Away had a theatrical release in China on 21 June 2019. It follows the theatrical China release of My Neighbour Totoro in December 2018.[69] The delayed theatrical release in China was due to long-standing political tensions between China and Japan, but many Chinese became familiar with Miyazaki's films due to rampant video piracy.[70] It topped the Chinese box office with a $28.8-million opening weekend, beating Toy Story 4 in China.[71] In its second weekend, Spirited Away grossed a cumulative $54.8 million in China, and was second only behind Spider-Man: Far From Home that weekend.[72] As of 16 July 2019, the film has grossed $70 million in China,[73] bringing its worldwide total box office to over $346 million as of 8 July 2019.[74]
Spirited Away's worldwide box office total stands at US$395,802,070.[a]
Home media
Spirited Away was first released on VHS and DVD formats in Japan by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on 19 July 2002.[75] The Japanese DVD releases include storyboards for the film and the special edition includes a Ghibli DVD player.[76] Spirited Away sold 5.5 million home video units in Japan by 2007,[77] and holds the record for most home video copies sold of all-time in the country as of 2014.[78] The movie was released on Blu-ray by Walt Disney Studios Japan on 14 July 2014, and DVD was also reissued on the same day with a new HD master, alongside several other Studio Ghibli movies.[79][80]
In North America, the film was released on DVD and VHS formats by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on 15 April 2003.[81] The attention brought by the Oscar win resulted in the film becoming a strong seller.[82] The bonus features include Japanese trailers, a making-of documentary which originally aired on Nippon Television, interviews with the North American voice actors, a select storyboard-to-scene comparison and The Art of Spirited Away, a documentary narrated by actor Jason Marsden.[83] The movie was released on Blu-ray by and North America by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on 16 June 2015.[84] GKIDS and Shout! Factory re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on 17 October 2017 following the expiration of Disney's previous deal with Studio Ghibli in the country in North America.[85] On 12 November 2019, GKIDS and Shout! Factory issued a North-America-exclusive Spirited Away collector's edition, which includes the film on Blu-ray, and the film's soundtrack on CD, as well as a 40-page book with statements by Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki, and essays by film critic Kenneth Turan and film historian Leonard Maltin.[86][87] Along with the rest of the Studio Ghibli films, Spirited Away was released on digital markets in the United States for the first time, on 17 December 2019.
In the United Kingdom, the film was released on DVD and VHS as a rental release through independent distributor High Fliers Films PLC following the film's limited theatrical release. It was later officially released on DVD in the UK on 29 March 2004, with the distribution being done by Optimum Releasing themselves.[88] In 2006, the DVD was reissued as a single-disc release (without the second one) with packaging matching other releases in Optimum's "The Studio Ghibli Collection" range.[89] The then-renamed StudioCanal UK released the movie on Blu-ray on 24 November 2014, A British 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition, similar to other Studio Ghibli anniversary editions released in the UK, was released on 25 October 2021.[90]
In the United States, the 2015 Blu-ray release grossed $9,925,660 from 557,613 physical units sold as of 21 February 2021.[91] In the United Kingdom, the film's Studio Ghibli anniversary release appeared several times on the annual lists of best-selling foreign language film on home video, ranking number six in 2015,[92] number five in 2016,[93] and number one in 2019.[94]
Television
The film was aired on Nippon TV (NTV) in Japan, on 24 January 2003. It became NTV's most-watched film of all time with a 46.9% audience rating, surpassing the 35.1% record previously set by Princess Mononoke in 1999.[95]
In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 670,000 viewers on BBC2 in 2010. This made it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on BBC, and the year's second highest foreign film on UK television (below the Indian Bollywood film Om Shanti Om).[96] Spirited Away was later watched by 300,000 UK viewers on BBC2 in 2011, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on BBC2.[97] Combined, the film drew a 970,000 UK television viewership on BBC2 between 2010 and 2011.
