GKIDS Acquires 'Mary to Majo no Hana' North American Distribution Rights

by arsonal
Aug 1, 2017 11:29 AM | 6 Comments

New York-based film distributor GKIDS announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the North American distribution rights to Studio Ponoc's Mary to Majo no Hana (Mary and the Witch's Flower).

The anime film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Omoide no Marnie) opened in theaters in Japan on July 8. Although Mary earned more box office revenue on its opening weekend than Marnie's opening weekend in 2014—428 million yen compared to 379 million yen—its cumulative earnings have paced slower than that of Yonebayashi's previous film in subsequent weeks.

Studio Ponoc was founded in 2015 by producer Yoshiaki Nishimura and several animators formerly with Studio Ghibli. The production of Mary to Majo no Hana, which is based on the 1971 children's novel The Little Broomstick by late British novelist Mary Stewart, has also enticed additional former employees of Ghibli to join the new company.

Nishimura also produced Yonebayashi's Marnie and Isao Takahata's Kaguya-hime no Monogatari. GKIDS acquired distribution licenses for both films, and each earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

GKIDS plans to bring Mary to Majo no Hana to North American theaters in the winter. Oricon also previously reported that the film will be screened in 155 countries and territories.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Licenses

6 Comments Recent Comments

pinkarray said:
I want them to tell me about who would be dubbing this now. There seems to be mixed reviews about it. I hope it's good.

The same team that's always dubbed the Ghibli films, the one headed by producer Geoffrey Wexler. They've already revealed the English cast and, like the Ghibli films before it, many of them are professional actors/voice actors outside of the small pool of dedicated anime VA's.

http://deadline.com/2017/08/kate-winslet-jim-broadbent-cast-mary-and-the-witchs-flower-1202158550/

Also everyone I've talked to who's seen it has said good things. Overall it seems to be a solid start for the studio and promising for future efforts.

Sep 11, 2017 9:53 AM by Joshimatsoo

I want them to tell me about who would be dubbing this now. There seems to be mixed reviews about it. I hope it's good.

Aug 22, 2017 6:16 PM by Angry_Anime_Nerd

I hope that we'll be getting the subbed version in theaters.

Aug 6, 2017 1:43 PM by HecticLeo

can't wait to see it

Aug 1, 2017 3:21 PM by NG_Chloe

neat. i've been meaning to watch this for a while

Aug 1, 2017 2:25 PM by MZXJ

Ohh this is interesting, the film isn't bad.

Aug 1, 2017 11:41 AM by Pipe