When Will Final Miyazaki Film ‘How Do You Live?’ Be Released in the U.S.? Where Will It Be Available to Stream?
Legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is hanging up his pen, but before he does, he’s releasing one last movie for global audiences to enjoy: “How Do You Live?”, which will be released in theaters in Japan on Friday, July 14.
The movie shares a title with a 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino, though Studio Ghibli has promised the film will have a unique and original story. The studio has deliberately chosen not to market “How Do You Live?”, declining to release trailers, posters, or any plot details that might spoil the magic of Miyazaki’s last movie.
“How Do You Live?” is scheduled to be released in Japan on July 14, 2023. Previous Studio Ghibli releases from the past decade have also been given to Japanese audiences before they make their way to the United States, and typically wait around five to 11 months before debuting in domestic cinemas. The studio already has a distribution partner in the United States (GKids), but it usually dubs movies in English before sending them to American viewers.
If you’re a devotee of all things Ghibli and Miyazaki, you’ll likely have to wait until at least late 2023 before “How Do You Live?” is released in the U.S., and it could be spring of 2024 before American audiences finally get a chance to see the movie. How long it will stay in theaters is up to GKids, but the question of which streaming service will get the film once it does leave cinemas is easy to answer.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max will get “How Do You Live?” once it’s ready to stream domestically, joining the rest of Studio Ghibli’s English-dubbed films on the service. WBD usually sticks with a theatrical window of 70 days at minimum for its movies, but since it isn’t actually the studio responsible for distributing the new Miyazaki movie in the U.S., it’s harder to say how long the movie will take to get to streaming.
Releases for Japanese anime films are generally fairly limited in the United States and are considered specialty releases, so it is unlikely that the film will receive the same kind of theatrical push as recent animated films like “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” or “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” But, given its importance in the history of the genre, “How Do You Live?” could stay in cinemas longer than otherwise anticipated.
Nonetheless, it’s probably not what Miyazaki fans want to hear, but they shouldn’t expect “How Do You Live?” to hit theaters in the United States before fall or winter 2023. Once it does arrive, it could take anywhere from two days to four months for the movie to be available to stream on Max, especially given the fact that GKids does not have any financial incentive to quickly move the film to streaming.
That being said, the only other Studio Ghibli film to be released since the launch of HBO Max (now named Max) was “Earwig and the Witch.” It initially aired on broadcast TV in Japan in November and December 2020 before arriving in theaters on August 27, 2021 — after being pushed off its original April release date due to COVID concerns.
In the U.S., the film received a limited theatrical release beginning on Feb. 3, 2021 and then arrived on HBO Max two days later on Feb. 5. Obviously the COVID situation is far different than it was two and a half years ago, so “Earwig and the Witch” might not provide a helpful precedent. But, there is the potential that it will arrive in theaters and on streaming within the same week.
Therefore, The Streamable’s official prediction for when “How Do You Live?” will hit Max is around Thanksgiving Week, so on or around Monday, Nov. 20, 2023.
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