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Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc 1st Episode Screening Opens at #1
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The screening opened in Tokyo last Friday as part of a World Tour.
The World Tour preview screenings debut in:
- Tokyo on February 2-3
- New York on February 10
- Seoul on February 11
- Berlin on February 13
- Mexico City and Singapore on February 17
- Jakarta on February 18
- São Paulo, Brazil on February 19
- Paris and Taipei on February 24
- London and Hong Kong on February 25
Following the World Tour, the theatrical screening will premiere in North American theaters on February 23. The anime will also screen in IMAX and premium large formats.
The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc anime will premiere in spring.
The film opened at #1 in the Japanese box office, selling 634,182 tickets for 1,065,983,130 yen (about US$7.20 million) in its first three days, marking the Gundam franchise's highest three-day opening in box office earnings, and the biggest opening weekend for a film so far this year in Japan. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM opened in Japan on January 26. The film is planned to screen in 56 countries and territories.
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 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 for 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, Banjou Ginga as Snijder, and Shunsuke Takeuchi as Type F.
The Kamen Rider 555 20th: Paradise Regained film opened at #6. The film earned 106,366,175 yen (about US$715,900) in its first three days.
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 Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo (Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of Gegege) anime film dropped off the top 10 in its 12th weekend.
Eiga Given: Hiiragi mix, the first film in the two-part sequel anime film project based on Natsuki Kizu's Given manga, stayed at #1 in the mini-theater rankings in its second weekend. The film ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings in its opening weekend.
The theatrical screening of a performance of the Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rule the Stage -Battle of Pride- stage play opened at #4 in the mini-theater ranking.
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, dropped from #3 to #5 in the mini-theater rankings in its second weekend.
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.
