Anime Hit 'My Hero Academia' Set for 1,000-Screen Release in North America

The second feature in the popular franchise will get a release around twice as wide as the first.

Anime hit My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising from Japan's Toho is set for a release on more than 1,000 screens in the U.S. and Canada in early 2020 by Funimation Films, the theatrical distribution arm of Sony Pictures Television's Funimation.

Directed by Kenji Nagasaki, it is the second feature in the popular manga and anime franchise. The first one, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, brought in nearly $6 million in North America when it was released last year, putting it in the top 10 grossing anime films in the region. The new release will include both an English dubbed and an English subtitled version.

The superhero story, set in a world where superpowers are so commonplace that they are known as "Quirks," began life as a serialized manga by Kohei Horikoshi in 2014. It has sold more than 26 million copies. The franchise follows the adventures of a young boy born without a Quirk. Four successful anime series, also directed by Nagasaki, have also been released based on the franchise, along with two video games, with a third scheduled for next year.

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, which will be released in Japan starting this Friday, is expected to be the last feature in the series.

Legendary Pictures bought the rights to a live-action adaptation of My Hero Academia in October 2018.