Sword Art Online still has it! The franchise has been quiet as of late, but the shonen series made a comeback this week with a brand-new movie. This past weekend, Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale finally hit theaters in Japan after a long wait, and fans were eager to prop the feature up. According to the box office, the animated film blasted away its competition to take the weekend’s top spot.

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Over the weekend, Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale sold more than 305,000 tickets in Japan and earned +400,00.00 yen (roughly $3.76 million) doing so. The film premiered in more than 150 theaters abroad, and its opening makes the Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale the first anime film since Your Name debuted to be #1 in both weekend attendance and overall weekend box office earnings. You can check out the synopsis for Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale below:

“In 2022, the world of virtual reality was upended by the arrival of a new invention from a genius programmer, Akihiko Kayaba, called NerveGear. It was the first full-dive system, and with it, came endless possibilities to VRMMORPGs. In 2026, a new machine called the Augma is developed to compete against the NerveGear and its successor, the Amusphere. A next-gen wearable device, the Augma doesn't have a full-dive function like its predecessors. Instead, it uses Augmented Reality (AR) to get players into the game. It is safe, user-friendly and lets users play while they are conscious, making it an instant hit on the market. The most popular game on the system is “Ordinal Scale” (aka: OS), an ARMMORPG developed exclusively for the Augma.

Asuna and the gang have already been playing OS for a while, by the time Kirito decides to join them. They're about to find out that Ordinal Scale isn't all fun and games…”

Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale is screening abroad in Japan, and the film will premiere in United States for a one-night event on March 9.

[HT] ANN