News

2009's Top Anime Movies at Japanese Box Office

No film in 2009 approached the success of 2008's Ponyo (15.50 billion yen or about US$171 million) in Japan. However, nine Japanese animated films did earn more than 1 billion yen (US$10.8 million) in 2009 in their domestic market — whereas only six anime films earned more than 1 billion yen in 2008.

The second film in Khara's four-part remake of Gainax's Evangelion anime grossed more than twice much as the first film did in 2007. Warner earned more than twice as much distributing Summer Wars (1.63 billion yen or US$17.5 million) in 2009 than it did with The Sky Crawlers (700 milllion yen or US$7.5 million) in 2008. Precure All Stars DX: Minna Tomodachi— Kiseki no Zenin Daishūgō is the first film in the Precure franchise to gross more than 1 billion yen. Similarly, Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser set a new record for the Detective Conan franchise.

Three films — Evangelion 2.0, Summer Wars, and Precure All Stars DX — garnered more than 1 billion yen each, even though they opened on less than 200 screens. One Piece Film Strong World opened too late in December to be included in this tally, but it earned US$32,238,129 after three weekends on less than 200 screens as well. Each screen averaged 5,523,614 yen (US$62,196) in just the first two days — the new record for a nationwide release in Japan after the passing of fire safety laws.

Rank	Title	Distributor	Director	Box Office in Yen	Box Office in US$	Image
1	Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (Pocket Monster Diamond & Pearl: Arceus Chōkoku no Jikū e)	Toho	Kunihiko Yuyama	4.67 billion yen	US$50.2 million
2	Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Ha)	Clockworks, Khara	Hideaki Anno	4.0 billion yen	US$43 million
3	Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser	Toho	Yasuichiro Yamamoto	3.5 billion yen	US$37.6 million
4	Doraemon: Shin Nobita no Uchū Kaitakushi	Toho	Kôzô Kusuba, Shigeo Koshi	2.45 billion yen	US$26.3 million
5	Summer Wars	Warner	Mamoru Hosoda	1.63 billion yen	US$17.5 million
6	Major: Yūjō no Winning Shot	Toho	Takao Kato	1.05 billion yen	US$11.3 million
7	Naruto Shippūden: Hi no Ishi o Tsugumono	Toho	Masahiko Murata	1.02 billion yen	US$11.0 million
8	Precure All Stars DX: Minna Tomodachi— Kiseki no Zenin Daishūgō	Toei	Takashi Otsuka	1.01 billion yen	US$10.9 million
9	Crayon Shin-chan: Otakebe! Kasukabe Yasei Ōkoku	Toho	Akira Shigino	1.0 billion yen	US$10.7 million
-	The Rebirth of Buddha	Toei	Takaaki Ishiyama	970 million yen	US$10.4 million
-	Fresh Precure! Omocha no Kuni wa Himitsu ga Ippai!?	Toei	Atsuji Shimizu	800 million yen	US$8.6 million
-	Duel Masters: Lunatic God Saga/Penguin no Mondai: Shiawase no Aoi Tori de Go-Pen-nasai	Toho	Waruo Suzuki, Keidai Hattori	About 660 million yen	About US$7.1 million
-	Chō Gekijōban Keroro Gunsō Gekishin Dragon Warriors de Arimasu!	Kadokawa Pictures	Junichi Sato, Susumu Yamaguchi	460 million yen	US$5.0 million
-	Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!	Toei	Tsuyoshi Koga	410 million yen	US$4.4 million
-	Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror	Toho	Shinsuke Sato	About 360 million yen	About US$3.8 million
-	Soreike! Anpanman: Dadandan to Futago no Hoshi	Tokyo Theatre/Mediabox	Jun Kawagoe	About 340 million yen	About US$3.7 million

Source: animeanime.biz