Ahead of the ONE PIECE FILM RED November 4 North American premiere, fans of the franchise had the opportunity to enjoy a New York takeover via a large-scale promotional campaign. First, about 450 people attended the US premiere screening of the film at the New York Comic Con’s first day on October 6. The convention featured large booth displays for ONE PIECE, as well as a ONE PIECE FILM RED panel on October 8. It was attended by around 4500 fans and the panelists included the film’s director Goro Taniguchi as well as producers Shinji Shimizu and Hiroaki Shibata of Toei Animation.
Then, on October 8, the large-scale ONE PIECE FILM RED New York takeover took place at the Times Square between 7:00pm and 8:00pm (EST). It featured which utilized multiple digital billboards to showcase scenes and promotonal material for ONE PIECE. Starting with a countdown, it showed some of the most memorable scenes from the anime. Giant scale images of Luffy and the Straw Hats, as well as Shanks and Uta, were also shown.
Fans spread the hype on social media, and Toei Animation shared a video from the scene:
In Japan, the film was released on August 6, 2022 in theaters, and watched by over 1.57 million people in the first 2 days with a box office of over 2.25 billion yen (~15.4 million USD) and became the best performing ONE PIECE movie in history after only 10 days. The film has continued to dominate the Japanese box office and is still ranking in the top. As of October 3, ONE PIECE FILM RED has a box office revenue of 16.2 billion yen (~116.24 million
USD) with over 11.69 million admissions in Japan and is about to reach the all-time highest box office record.
Crunchyroll describes the story for the movie:
Uta—the most beloved singer in the world whose voice has been described as “otherworldly”—is renowned for concealing her own identity when performing. Now, for the first time ever, she will reveal herself to the world at a live concert.
With the Navy watching closely, the venue fills with Uta’s fans—including excited pirates and the Straw Hats led by Luffy, who simply came to enjoy her sonorous performance—all eagerly awaiting the voice that the whole world has been waiting for to resound. The story begins with the shocking revelation that she is the enigmatic Shanks’ daughter.
Source: Press release
© Eiichiro Oda/2022 “One Piece” production committee