Miyazaki’s “Arrietty” takes ninth at $6.4 million

Karig­urashi No Ari­etti (The Secret World of Arrietty”)

Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Secret World of Arri­etty,” based on Mary Norton’s famous children’s novel The Bor­row­ers, opened in ninth place in lim­ited North Amer­i­can release, tak­ing $6.6 mil­lion this past weekend.

It’s esti­mated that Arri­etty will earn $8 mil­lion over the four-day President’s Day week­end, which ends Monday.

Play­ing on fewer screens than bigger-earning films this week­end, it made an aver­age of $4,189 at 1,522 venues.

For over a decade, Dis­ney has been dis­trib­ut­ing Miyazaki’s Stu­dio Ghi­bli films in North Amer­ica. Arri­etty had a much bet­ter open­ing than any pre­vi­ous anime film dis­trib­uted by Dis­ney. Ponyo, Disney’s last wide-release anime film, opened at $3.6 mil­lion and even­tu­ally gar­nered $15.1 mil­lion in 2009.

The Secret World of Arri­etty had the fifth-best anime open­ing in United States box office his­tory, behind three Poké­mon flicks and a Yu-Gi-Oh! movie.

The biggest hit in its native coun­try in 2010, Arri­etty grossed over $110 mil­lion in Japan alone. It’s received an “A-” Cin­e­maS­core grade from North Amer­i­can moviegoers.

About tiny peo­ple liv­ing under the floor­boards of a coun­try home, the film fea­tures a voice cast includ­ing Carol Bur­nett, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett.

Den­zel Wash­ing­ton and Ryan Reynolds’ Safe House led nar­rowly with $24 mil­lion between Fri­day to Sun­day, accord­ing to Sunday’s stu­dio esti­mates. Rachel McAdams and Chan­ning Tatum’s The Vow was a close sec­ond with $23.6 million.

Stu­dios will report final num­bers for the long hol­i­day week­end on Tuesday

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