News

Weathering With You Back at #1, Ni no Kuni Opens at #7

Makoto Shinkai's new film Weathering With You (Tenki no Ko) jumped back from #2 to #1 in its sixth weekend. The film sold 305,000 tickets over the weekend, and earned 420,665,000 yen (about US$3.97 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film has so far sold 8 million tickets for 10,734,722,500 yen (about US$101 million) since opening. The film is now the #9 highest-earning film of all time in Japan.

The film sold 1,159,020 tickets for 1,643,809,400 yen (about US$15.22 million) in its first three days in 358 theaters. The film ranked #1 in its opening weekend.

The film earned 28.6% more in its first three days compared to Shinkai's previous your name. film, which earned 1,277,960,000 yen (about US$12.51 million at the time) in its first three days.

The film opened in 359 theaters and 448 screens in Japan on July 19.The last Japanese film to earn over 10 billion yen was Shinkai's previous film your name. three years ago. Weathering With You is also now the highest-grossing Japanese film so far this year.

The One Piece Stampede anime film dropped from #3 to #4 in its third weekend. The film earned 305,843,000 (about US$2.88 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film has so far sold 3.11 million tickets and earned a cumulative total of 4,133,257,100 yen (about US$39 million).

It is the fastest Toei-distributed film to reach the three-billion-yen milestone since 2000.

The new film sold 1,254,372 tickets for 1,646,321,500 yen (about US$15.64 million) in its first four days in Japan. (That Monday was a holiday in Japan.) The film earned 8.4% more and sold 15.3% more tickets over its first four days than One Piece Film Gold, the previous franchise film. It sold 356,052 tickets on 429 screens in 352 theaters just on its opening day, the largest first-day attendance record at the Japanese box office so far in 2019. It sold 598,000 tickets for 806 million yen (about US$7.59 million) from Saturday to Sunday, or 69.7% of the total of One Piece Film Gold's first (non-holiday) weekend.

One Piece Stampede marks the anime's 20th anniversary. The first 3 million theatergoers will receive the One Piece Comic -Kan-Banpaku- manga. Fuji TV describes the film's story:

The world's greatest exposition of the pirates, by the pirates, for the pirates - the Pirates Festival. Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hat Crew receive an invitation from its host Buena Festa who is known as the Master of Festivities. They arrive to find a venue packed with glamorous pavilions and many pirates including the ones from the Worst Generation. The place is electric.

Warner Bros. Japan and Level 5's Ni no Kuni anime film ranked #7 in its opening weekend. The film opened last Friday in 320 screens.

The film is based on Level 5's fantasy role-playing game series, but features an original story in which through a certain incident, the three friends Yū, Haru, and Kotona are able to travel back and forth between reality and "another world" Ni no Kuni. When the life of the Kotona in both worlds is simultaneously put in danger, the three friends must make "the ultimate choice."

Yoshiyuki Momose (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes character designer, Only Yesterday and Pom Poko storyboarder) returned from the game series to direct the film, and Hayao Miyazaki's longtime collaborator Joe Hisaishi (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) returned to compose the music. Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino oversaw the film and wrote the script, and he is also credited with the original work.

Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution (Mewtwo no Gyakushū Evolution), the 22nd film in the Pokémon franchise, dropped from #8 to 10 in its seventh weekend. The film earned 47,146,100 yen (about US$445,400) from Friday to Sunday. The film has earned a cumulative total of 2,750,639,100 yen (about US$255.99 million).

The film sold 454,000 tickets to earn 553 million yen to rank #2 in its opening weekend in 367 theaters. The film earned 10.6% more in its opening weekend than last year's film Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us did in its opening weekend. (Last year's film eventually earned 3.09 billion yen (about US$28.5 million.)

The new film is a 3D CG remake of Pocket Monsters: Mewtwo no Gyakushū, the 1998 film adapted into English as Pokémon: The First Movie. The film screened at Anime Expo in July.

The live-action film adaptation of Norifusa Mita's Archimedes no Taisen (The Great War of Archimedes) manga dropped out of the top 10 in its fifth weekend. The film still earned 49,836,800 yen (about US$470,800) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 1,734,158,100 yen (about US$16.38 million).

Dragon Quest Your Story, the Dragon Quest game franchise's first 3D CG anime film, dropped out of the top 10 in its fourth weekend. The film still earned 41,884,800 yen (about US$395,800) from Friday to Sunday, and the film has earned a cumulative total of 1,301,982,000 yen (about US$12.30 million).

Sources: Eiga.com, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC