Japan’s highest grossing cinema release of 2025 to date isn’t a feature film. It is Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-, a compilation of episodes from an upcoming TV series.
After five weeks in cinemas, -Beginning- has earned more than $16.5m (¥2.5bn) from 1.55 million admissions, according to the site Cinema Ranking Tsushin.
Distributed by Toho and Bandai Namco Filmworks, the 81-minute collection of re-edited episodes precedes a series that is set to air on Nippon Television in April. It is due for release in the US through Gkids on February 28, when several territories across Asia are also set to open the title in theatres.
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, the story follows is a high-school student living on a space colony who meets a war refugee and is drawn into an illegal mobile suit duelling sport known as Clan Battle.
-Beginning- opened on January 17 and led the box office with nearly $4m (¥599m) on its opening weekend. It held the number one slot on its second outing and remains in the top 10 after five weeks.
Its current takings make it the second-highest grossing Gundam cinema release of all time, after Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom ($35.4m/¥5.38b), which opened in January 2024.
Titles such as Japanese fantasy feature Cells At Work! and Disney animation Moana 2 lead the overall box office of the year to date, taking $40m (¥6.07bn) and $33.8m (¥5.12bn) respectively, but these were released in late 2024.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX marks first major collaboration between Studio Khara, the outfit behind the Evangelion series, and Sunrise, the home to the Mobile Suit Gundam animated works.
The scripts are co-written by acclaimed screenwriter Yoji Enokido and celebrated filmmaker Hideaki Anno of the Evangelion series.
It is set in an alternate-universe spinoff of the original Mobile Suit Gundam mecha series, which launched the franchise in 1979, and features characters from that series while also introducing new elements.
This success of episode packages in cinemas has previously been seen with the likes of popular TV anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. In 2024, a cinematic preview of Demon Slayer’s fourth season subtitled To The Hashira Training earned $15.2m (¥2.31bn) locally.
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