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Gundam SEED FREEDOM Opens at #1 in Japan, Live-Action Golden Kamuy Drops to #2
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The previous record holder, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, sold 259,074 tickets for 523,943,800 yen (about US$4.77 million at the time) in its first three days at the box office in June 2021. It ranked at #3 (in terms of tickets sold) in its opening weekend. The film became the first Gundam film since 1988's Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack to top the 1 billion yen mark, and earned a total of 2.23 billion yen (about US$15.1 million by current conversion).
The 1982 Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space anime film holds the record for highest Japanese box office revenue in the Gundam franchise with a total of about 2.3 billion yen (US$15.5 million by current conversion).
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM opened in Japan on Friday. The film is planned to screen in 56 countries and territories.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda directed the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) designed the characters.
Takanori Nishikawa (the artist also known as T.M. Revolution) performs the film's theme song "Freedom" with producer t.komuro (Tetsuya Komuro). See-Saw returned to the franchise to perform the ending song "Sarigiwa no Romantics" (Romantics Upon Parting), the first new music from the duo in two decades.
The film topped the Japanese box office in its opening weekend of January 19-21. The film sold 356,000 tickets and earned 533,848,690 yen (about US$3.62 million) in its first three days.
The film opened in Japan on January 19.
Shigeaki Kubo directed the film at production company CREDEUS. Tsutomu Kuroiwa wrote the script. Yutaka Yamada composed the music. Hiroshi Nakagawa and Debo Akibe are credited for Ainu supervision. Japanese rock group ACIDMAN performed the theme song "Kagayakerumono" (Those Who Shine).
Satoru Noda launched the manga in Shueisha's Young Jump magazine in 2014, and ended it in April 2022. The manga has inspired four anime seasons, and production of the anime's final arc has been green-lit.
The film opened in Japan on December 22. The film is an all-new work with an original story. The film sold 866,000 tickets and earned 1.224 billion yen (about US$8.61 million) in its first three days.
Crunchyroll will screen the film in North America in 2024.
Original manga creator Tatsuya Endō is credited with the original work and original character designs for the film, and he also supervised the film. WIT STUDIO and CloverWorks again animated the film.
New cast members for the film include Tomoya Nakamura as Dmitri, Kento Kaku as Luka, Banjō Ginga as Snijder, and Shunsuke Takeuchi as Type F.
The film opened in Japan on November 17 and sold 111,500 tickets and earned 160,106,620 yen (about US$1.07 million) in its first three days.
Gō Koga (Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, One Piece Episode of Sabo) directed the film at Toei Animation, and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, World Trigger, 13 episodes in 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō) wrote the screenplay. Tōko Yatabe (2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō's third ending sequence unit director, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant director) designed the characters. The main cast includes Toshihiko Seki as Kitarō's father, who would eventually become Medama Oyaji, and Hidenobu Kikuchi as Mizuki, a salaryman who heads to a cursed village under secret orders.
Godzilla Minus One opened in Japan on November 3, 2023 ("Godzilla Day"), which was the anniversary of the first Godzilla film's November 3, 1954 release. The new film screened at The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of this year's event on November 1.
The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last live-action Japanese Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla, did in its first three days in 2016.
Ryunosuke Kamiki plays protagonist Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays heroine Noriko Ōishi. (The two also lead the cast of NHK's ongoing weekday morning series Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.
The Fukuyama Masaharu Live Film, the concert film of singer Masaharu Fukuyama's Nippon Budokan 2023 concert, earned 47,760,250 yen (about US$324,100) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 229,593,480 yen (about US$1.55 million).
The live-action film of Yama Wayama's Let's Go Karaoke! (Karaoke Iko!) manga dropped off the top 10 in its third weekend, but it still earned 64,000,580 yen (about US$434,500) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 339,941,490 yen (about US$2.30 million).
Detective Conan vs. Kid the Phantom Thief, the compilation film for the Detective Conan franchise, dropped off the top 10 in its fourth weekend.
Eiga Given: Hiiragi mix, the first film in the two-part sequel anime film project based on Natsuki Kizu's Given manga, ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings in its opening weekend.
The Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete 4K Remaster film dropped from #1 to #2 in the mini-theater ranking in its second weekend.
Colorful na Majō ~ Kadono Eiko no Monogatari ga Umareru Kurashi ~ (Colorful Witch: Eiko Kadono's Life From Where Stories Are Born), Kadokawa's documentary film about Kiki's Delivery Service author Eiko Kadono, opened at #3 in the mini-theater rankings.
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), comScore via KOFIC
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
