One Piece Film Red is the biggest One Piece movie ever

Savannah Howard
One Piece Film Red Official release poster

One Piece Film Red is the One Piece franchise’s highest-selling and highest-earning film of all time. Let the encore screening commence.

If you were one of millions of people to see One Piece Film Red in the theaters, then congratulations. You are now a part of history.

First released over a year ago on August 6, 2022 and running until January 29, 2023, One Piece Film Red has broken box office records across Japan to become the highest grossing One Piece film of all time. And that’s not all.

With the hit film currently doing encore screenings across Japan, which are also topping the box office charts, discover how this seafaring musical adventure made history.

One Piece Film Red makes history

On October 30, 2023, One Piece Film Red became the 8th film in history to pass ¥20bn (US$143.08mn) in Japan.

Over a year after the movie premiered in Japan, One Piece Film Red continues to pass historic box office milestones to become the highest-grossing One Piece movie of all time and surpassed Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) the 4th highest grossing Japanese film ever.

The One Piece official Twitter account released a commemorative poster, as shown above, on October 31 to celebrate the milestone. The poster is accompanied by simple text stating that One Piece Film Red has surpassed 20bn yen in domestic box office earnings, including last year’s (2022) screening.

One Piece Film Red encore screenings breaks records

To celebrate, the movie is currently holding encore screenings, beginning October 20, across Japan which have also topped the box office charts.

According to a statement on One Piece’s website, this encore screening ranked at #1 in its opening weekend and made ¥300mn in revenue on the back of 230,000 tickets sold. Combined with the earnings during the original run, that means over 14.5mn tickets have been sold.

When the film was first released, it immediately became a box office hit. On its opening day, it surpassed ¥1bn, making it the third film ever in Japanese history to reach this landmark, the second biggest opening day of all time in Japan, and also achieving the highest ever opening for an IMAX movie.

This, added to with the original release revenue, caused the movie to become the 8th ever in Japan to cross ¥20bn in earnings.

One Piece Film Red plot

The musical pirate adventure, from Toei Animation and directed by Goro Taniguchi who is known for Code Geass (2006), is the fifteenth feature film of the One Piece film series. But unlike previous movies, One Piece’s creator Eiichiro Oda was heavily involved in the film’s production – which could account for its phenomenal success.

The movie follows the adventures of Shanks, Monkey D. Luffy’s childhood hero and one of the Four emperors and introduces Uta, a world-famous singer in the universe who wants Luffy to stop being a pirate.

If you’d like to see what all of the hype is about, but don’t live in Japan, you’ve nothing to worry about. The movie is also available on Crunchyroll for an English-speaking audience (although you won’t get the full cinematic experience).

As Once Piece continues to shape the future of anime (and break historical records), its popular anime movie One Piece Film Red reminds fans of the spirit of adventure and the allure of the high seas that has captured us for decades.

How to watch Crunchyroll from outside your location in 2023

Crunchyroll is the world’s best hub for streaming anime, whether it’s One Piece, Attack on Titan, or Jujutsu Kaisen – and thanks to ExpressVPN, you can access the platform’s full library even if you’re outside the US.

If you’re abroad, here’s what you need to do to access Crunchyroll’s full selection – and it really is this simple:

Sign up for ExpressVPN, which has ultra-fast servers and offers a secure, private connection wherever you are in the world.
Connect to a location anywhere in the US. Express VPN allows you to choose from 24 different spots, from New Jersey to Santa Monica.
Visit Crunchyroll online and start streaming all of your favorite animes – and perhaps some you’ve never watched.
Accessing Crunchyroll’s US roster makes a difference. For example, Hong Kong users only have access to less than 100 titles, while the US has nearly 1,000 movies and TV shows.

You can also stream anime on Crunchyroll for free with an ad-supported plan. Or you can pay for a subscription – there’s even a 14-day free trial if you can’t quite make up your mind.

You can check out our other anime coverage here.

Please note that if you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.

About The Author

Savannah Howard is an Anime Writer at Dexerto. She loves dystopian thrillers, sci-fi and action series. You can email her here: savannah.howard@dexerto.com