Two beloved Studio Ghibli classics are headed back to the big screen this spring, as Gkids and Imax continue their effort to give the Japanese animation house’s catalog a premium theatrical revival in North America.
The distributor unveiled on Tuesday that newly restored 4K editions of Whisper of the Heart (1995) and The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) will screen exclusively in Imax theaters across the U.S. and Canada on April 21 and May 19, respectively, with both subtitled Japanese-language and English-dub versions available.
The plan follows last year’s Imax rerelease of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, which opened to $3.9 million domestically and ultimately earned $6.9 million — making it the second-highest-grossing vault release ever for Imax.
The latest screenings also build on GKIDS’ ongoing collaboration with Imax to roll out newly remastered Ghibli classics in 4K. The initiative continues this month with a rerelease of Kiki’s Delivery Service on U.S. giant screens on Friday.
Whisper of the Heart, directed by the late Yoshifumi Kondo and based on Aoi Hiiragi’s manga with a screenplay and storyboards by Miyazaki, remains one of the studio’s most cherished coming-of-age stories. The film follows Shizuku, an introspective teenager whose encounter with a mysterious cat leads her to an unexpected artistic awakening.
The Secret World of Arrietty, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, adapts Mary Norton’s classic children’s novel The Borrowers, imagining a hidden world of tiny people living beneath the floorboards of human homes. The English-language dub features voices including Bridgit Mendler, David Henrie, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Moises Arias and Carol Burnett.
The remastering work is being overseen by longtime Studio Ghibli cinematographer Atsushi Okui, who has worked on nearly every major production from the studio since Porco Rosso in 1992 and most recently served as director of digital imaging on Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron.
GKIDS handles North American distribution for the entire Studio Ghibli film library across theatrical, home entertainment and digital platforms. Since 2017, the company has also produced the annual “Ghibli Fest,” a nationwide theatrical program that brings the studio’s films back to theaters each year.
The IMAX rereleases come as GKIDS expands its ambitions under new ownership. The company was acquired in 2024 by Japanese entertainment giant Toho Co., and has since been ramping up its distribution slate, including branching into North American releases of live-action Japanese films. Recent titles include the 2025 blockbuster kabuki drama Kokuho, while the upcoming slate features Hirokazu Kore-eda’s forthcoming feature Look Back, and the next entry in Toho’s monster franchise, Godzilla Minus Zero.
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