New anime Your Name breaks Irish and UK records

Your Name is a new anime from director Makoto Shinkai which has just kicked off a limited run at cinemas across Ireland and the UK. And it's managed to break box office records at the same time!

Yesterday it expanded to 104 cinemas across Ireland and the UK and brought in a massive €127,350. That's a record breaker for a single day gross and also the largest number of screens ever for an anime release.

Which is excellent news as it might spur local cinemas to take on more high quality releases from Japan another Asian nations. We caught the film last night and it's an utterly gorgeous thing, a story of a young girl and guy with a strange connection.

James Dobbin of National Amusements commented “We are thrilled with last night’s results particularly as the cinema distribution included a large number of multiplexes in key cities but also plenty of smaller towns across the UK and Ireland. We’re committed to bringing a regular strand of anime to the big screen and this success gives us a great platform to build on in 2017.”

It doesn't look like the film is still showing in Ireland but it may return later in the year.