The Anthem of the Heart ( Kokosake or Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterun Da. ) anime film has earned more than 1 billion yen as of Sunday, after 44 days in the Japanese box office. The film earned 1,015,293,050 yen (about US$8.43 million) and sold 744,901 tickets by Sunday according to its distribution company.

In comparison with the Anohana film, The Anthem of the Heart hit its 1 billion yen mark 12 days earlier than Anohana. Anohana earned a total of 1.04 billion yen at the box office.

The film earned more than 300 million yen (about US$2.5 million) in its first five days at the Japanese box office, and sold approximately 235,000 tickets. The film then earned more than 514,402,000 yen (about US$4.28 million) after its second week.

T-Joy screened The Anthem of the Heart with English subtitles in four theaters in Japan from October 17-23. Aniplex of America and Eleven Arts opened the film in select theaters in the United States and Canada on Sunday.

The official English website for the film describes the story:

Jun is a girl whose words have been sealed away. She was once a happy girl, but because of a [certain thing] she said when she was very young, her family was torn apart. One day, the egg fairy appeared in front of her and sealed away her ability to talk in order to stop her from hurting anybody else. Since this traumatic experience, Jun lives in the shadows away from the limelight. But, one day she is nominated to become an executive member of the "community outreach council." On top of that, Jun is also appointed to play the main lead in their musical...

The film reunites staff members from the anohana and Toradora! anime. Tatsuyuki Nagai (A Certain Scientific Railgun, Waiting in the Summer) again directed the film at the studio A-1 Pictures. Mari Okada (M3 the dark metal, Hana-Saku Iroha) wrote the script, and Masayoshi Tanaka (Highschool of the Dead, Joshiraku) designed the characters. Like the anohana anime, the story of the new film is set in Chichibu.

Source: Anime! Anime! via Yaraon!