Ten Days, ¥1.5 Billion, and a Milestone in Sight
The numbers cover August 28 through September 6: 904,721 tickets sold and ¥1,537,959,580 earned, according to a box office report from Japanese anime news site Anime Anime. The film finished its opening weekend at number one on both the admissions and gross rankings, passed ¥1 billion in four days, and hit the ¥1.5 billion line on day 10. At that pace, it will cross 1 million admissions within days.
The opening was built for turnout. Some theaters ran midnight screenings from the first minute of release day, and cast and staff appeared at stage greetings over the first weekend, with live viewing simulcast to cinemas nationwide. Anime News Network reported in August that the Japanese run includes IMAX screenings. Week two kept the events going: costumed character greetings ran at theaters in Kyoto, Umeda, and Hiroshima on September 5 and 6.
Thirteen Years After Rebellion
Madoka Magica started in 2011 as an original TV anime with no manga or light novel behind it. It follows Madoka Kaname, an ordinary second-year middle school student, whose strange encounter pulls her into a story about magical girls born from wishes.
The film history runs through three earlier releases. In 2012 the TV series was recut into two theatrical films, Part 1: Beginnings and Part 2: Eternal. In 2013 came Part 3: Rebellion, an original continuation. Walpurgisnacht Rising is the first fully new entry since then, positioned as both a sequel to Rebellion and a new beginning for the series. It arrived roughly 13 years after Rebellion.
That gap is the context for the opening figures. A 2011 TV series and a 2013 film built the audience that showed up in August 2026, and the four-day sprint to ¥1 billion suggests most of them had the release date circled well in advance.
Shaft, Kajiura, and the Returning Cast
Shaft (the Monogatari series) animated the film, with Akiyuki Shinbo as chief director and Yukihiro Miyamoto directing. Gen Urobuchi wrote the script, Ume Aoki supplied the original character designs, Junichiro Taniguchi handled character design, and Yuki Kajiura returned to score. FictionJunction, Kajiura's vocal project, performs the theme song "Kanata."
The core voice cast is intact. Aoi Yuki and Chiwa Saito are back as Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi, with Kaori Mizuhashi as Mami Tomoe, Eri Kitamura as Sayaka Miki, Ai Nonaka as Kyoko Sakura, Kana Asumi as Nagisa Momoe, and Emiri Kato as Kyubey. Two new magical girls join them: Shion Wakayama as Shichoka (紫丁香) and Tomoyo Kurosawa as Selma Therese.
Looking Ahead
The film is still playing in Japan, and 1 million admissions should fall almost immediately; as of September 6 it was just over 95,000 tickets short. Aniplex has been running weekly theater giveaways since opening, so the domestic run has built-in reasons for repeat visits through September.
International fans are still waiting on a date. Aniplex maintains an official English site for the film under the title Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising-, but it currently lists the release as coming soon, and no North American theatrical date or streaming window has been announced. Anyone catching up in the meantime has the 2011 TV series and the three earlier films, all of which have been released in English by Aniplex of America.
The production has also asked audiences to keep spoilers off social media, a request Anime News Network covered before the film opened. With no international date yet, that request has a longer shelf life than usual.