Haikyuu Final Movie, The Boy and the Heron rivalry flourishes on Japan charts

Beyond the volleyball court, Haikyuu!! the Dumpster Battle (Haikyuu Final Movie 1) has entered the arena to compete with Hayao Miyazaki’s film The Boy and the Heron. The Japanese all-time box office charts have witnessed the sports anime film’s considerable jump, as it took 60th place in the rankings, just two spots behind its Oscar-winning contender.
According to Crunchyroll, the 2024 Haikyuu movie tickets have locked in sales worth 9.267 billion yen ($61.75 million) as of April 7, after selling out 6.48 million tickets. Now, the 60th highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the volleyball film has crossed the 2010 fantasy adventure film Arriety’s mark (9.26 billion yen).
As for The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki’s feature sits high on the 58th spot with Code Blue: The Movie (2018). It has raked in 9.3 billion yen ($64.99 million) in Japan. With a mere gap of 330 million yen between the high-contending releases, Haikyuu The Dumpster Battle is expected to cross the Academy Award recipient any time soon, taking into account that it is still bringing in a lot of money daily.
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Instead of pushing for a fifth season of the much-loved anime series, the movie event fleshes out the high-stakes showdown between Karasuno and Nekoma High School. The fierce competition between the two powerhouse volleyball teams unleashed its fury in Japanese theatres on February 16, 2024. It is the first of the two-part final event.
Susumu Mitsunaka’s directorial brings together the collaboration between animation houses, Production IG and Toho Animation. The first anime installment of the final conclusion of Haruichi Furudate’s manga picks up the action from Chapter 291 onwards. No Western release date for the movie has been finalised yet. Moreover, the second film’s premiere is yet to be announced.
EDIT: Haikyu The Movie: Decisive Battle at The Garbage Dump is officially coming to North American theatres on May 31, 2024, with English subtitles and the English dubbed version. 
Having clinched the Best Animated Feature title at the 96th Oscars, the Hayao Miyazaki directorial originally came out in Japanese theatres on July 14, 2023. It initially premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
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Also, the recipient of several other eminent international awards, The Boy and The Heron’s India release date is coming around soon. Warner Bros India announced that the film will be premiering in Japanese with English subtitles along with its English dub version. It will soon start streaming on Netflix worldwide (excluding the US and Japan).
The critically acclaimed feature is about a 12-year-old boy, Mahito, reeling from his mother’s death as he grapples with the sudden change of having to move to a new town as well. Fate plays with him as a taking heron informs him that his mother is still alive. Taking his chance, he discovers an abandoned tower near his new countryside home. Stepping in transports him to a fantastical world shared by the living and the dead.