Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away opened in a limited release in 26 theaters last weekend with the highest per-screen average of the weekend.  It grossed around $449,000, for a per-screen average of $17,301 (for comparison Barbershop, the top-grossing film of the weekend, had a $6767 per-screen average).  The film received almost uniformly rave reviews, but questions still remain as to whether it will do well in broad release (see 'Can Disney Sell Spirited Away?').  It was the top-grossing film of all time in Japan.

 

According to the Nausicaa.net Website (which has a full listing of theaters), the movie opened in the following cities last weekend:

Hollywood, California

San Francisco

San Francisco East Bay Area

Silicon Valley Area

Toronto

Chicago

Boston

Minneapolis

Voorhees, New Jersey

New York City

Seattle

Washington, D.C.

 

Spirited Away will open in the following cities this weekend (9/27), with a total of 28 additional screens:

Los Angeles area (10 screens)

Ontario, California

Orange County, California

San Fernando Valley, California

Bergen County, New Jersey

Essex County, New Jersey

Morris/Warren County, New Jersey

Farmingdale, NY

Hawthorne, NY

Nassau, NY

West Nyack, NY

 

More cities will be added in October.  The primary product lines available for pop culture retailers looking to tie into this release are the manga and art books from Viz (see 'Viz Gets Spirited Away Manga Rights').