Crunchyroll and Sony put Akira back on North American screens on September 4 — 4K restoration, IMAX prints, subtitled and dubbed — and the 1988 film pulled US$3.175 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend. A 38-year-old cyberpunk movie out-opened most of what is currently airing.
Quick answer
Akira (1988, directed by Katsuhiro Ōtomo, animated at TMS Entertainment) returned to U.S. and Canadian theaters on September 4, 2026 through Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures, in 4K and IMAX, with Japanese audio and an English dub. It earned US$3.175 million in its opening four days. According to SenpaiRanks, Akira sits at 7.79 on both the Consensus and the Quality axis — elite tier on our film board, scored by anime-native voters instead of one blended number the way MyAnimeList does it.
Reading the $3.175 million
The split: US$1.22 million Friday, US$725,000 Saturday, US$695,000 Sunday, and an estimated US$535,000 on Labor Day, per Anime News Network's report on the weekend returns. That Friday spike is the whole story — this was an event turnout, people who booked IMAX seats the day tickets opened, not a slow word-of-mouth build.
For context on the scale of the restoration: Crunchyroll and Sony marketed it as the definitive presentation of a film that, in 1988, reset what a Japanese animated feature could look like. The re-release plays both audio tracks, which matters more than it sounds — the 1988 Streamline dub and the 2001 Pioneer dub have split fandom for two decades.
[Official 4K re-release trailer]
Does it actually hold up?
This is where our two axes do work a single score can't. Consensus 7.79 says Akira is broadly loved across a wide voter base. Quality 7.79 says it holds up on rewatch and against everything released since. When those two numbers sit on top of each other, you are looking at a film with no real dissent — no inflated hype spike, no nostalgia-only crowd propping it up.
What ages well: the animation. 160,000 cels, hand-drawn, with lip movement animated to recorded dialogue before the fact — a workflow almost nobody could afford then or now. What ages awkwardly: the plot compresses six manga volumes into two hours and expects you to keep up. That is the honest read, and it is the read our Quality axis is built to surface.
Where to watch Akira
Right now, the best answer is a theater — the 4K and IMAX run is still in select U.S. and Canadian locations. For streaming, Akira's home-video and digital rights have rotated between platforms and regions for years, so the live platform list on its SenpaiRanks catalog page is the thing to check rather than any one streamer's catalog. We list every platform that carries a title, including the ones a streaming service would rather you not notice.
If you want the wider film shelf, our best anime movies of 2026 board and the all-time anime ranking both place Akira against the rest of the field.
The call
Worth the theater ticket. Akira is the reference point for every cyberpunk anime that came after it — we ranked that whole lineage on the best cyberpunk anime board, and Akira is the film the rest of the list is arguing with. It also sits inside the wider sci-fi ranking if you want a broader shelf.
Disagree with 7.79? Rate it on its page. The board moves when anime watchers vote, which is exactly why our number reads differently than a general-audience star average on IMDb — the reasoning behind that is laid out in why SenpaiRanks works as an IMDb for anime.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How much did Akira's 4K re-release make?
A: US$3.175 million in its opening four-day weekend in the U.S. — US$1.22 million Friday, US$725,000 Saturday, US$695,000 Sunday, and an estimated US$535,000 on Labor Day.
Q: Where can I watch Akira in 2026?
A: In theaters through the Crunchyroll and Sony 4K/IMAX re-release that opened September 4, 2026. Streaming rights rotate by region, so check the live platform list on Akira's SenpaiRanks page.
Q: Is Akira good?
A: Yes. It holds 7.79 on both the Consensus and Quality axes on SenpaiRanks — broadly loved and still holding up, which is the rare combination.
Q: Is the Akira re-release subbed or dubbed?
A: Both. Select theaters carry Japanese audio with English subtitles and an English dub.
Q: Who directed Akira?
A: Katsuhiro Ōtomo, adapting his own manga. TMS Entertainment animated it, and it premiered in Japan in 1988.