News
Japanese Box Office, April 18-19
posted on by Egan Loo
Meitantei Conan: Shikkoku no Chaser (Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser), the 13th film based on Gōshō Aoyama's popular shōnen manga about a brilliant detective trapped in a child's body, opened at #1 on Kogyo Tsushinsha's Japanese box office chart during the April 18-19 weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, it took in the equivalent of US$6,021,234 on 341 screens.
Crows Zero II, Takashi Miike's second prequel film to Hiroshi Takahashi's Crows fighting manga, dropped from #2 to #3 in its second weekend. It earned US$3,478,704 on 314 screens for a gross-to-date of US$13,454,650. Shun Oguri (Hana Yori Dango, Gokusen, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie - Conqueror of Shamballa) reprises his role of high school delinquent Genji in this story set eight months after the first schoolyard-brawl film and just before Genji's graduation.
Eiga Crayon Shin-chan: Otakebe! Kasukabe Yasei Ōkoku (Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Roar! Kasukabe Wild Kingdom), the 17th film based on Yoshito Usui's comedy manga and anime, opened at #4. It garnered US$1,694,368 on 323 screens.
Drop, comedian Hiroshi Shinagawa's live-action adaptation of his own coming-of-age novel, also fell from #3 to #7 in its fifth weekend. It took in US$728,103 on 163 screens for a total of US$16,334,875. The film retells a loosely autobiographical story of how a boy was inspired by the Be-Bop-Highschool fighting manga to join a delinquent gang.
Another of Miike's films, the live-action adaptation of the Yatterman science-fiction comedy anime, dropped from #4 to #9 in its seventh weekend, but still added US$401,745 to its total of US$29,668,401 on 303 screens.
Toei Animation's Precure All Stars DX: Minna Tomodachi—Kiseki no Zenin Daishūgō film fell from #6 to #10 in its fifth weekend. It earned US$262,597 on 146 screens for a gross-to-date of US$9,099,922. This film marks the fifth anniversary of the Precure magical girl franchise.
Doraemon: Shin Nobita no Uchū Kaitakushi (Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's How Space Was Won, New Edition), the second anime film remake of a classic 1980-1981 Doraemon manga story that sends the title robot cat to space, dropped from #5 off the chart in its fifth weekend.
Sources: Kogyo Tsushinsha
image © 2009 Gōshō Aoyama/Detective Conan Production Committee
follow-up of Japanese Box Office, April 11-12
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