News
Japanese Box Office, December 31-January 1
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Note: Kogyo Tsushinsha did not post box office rankings for the December 31-January 1 weekend.
The 3D computer-animated film Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki (Friends: Naki of Monster Island) rose from No. 4 to No. 2 during its third weekend. The live-action Space Battleship Yamato film's Takashi Yamazaki wrote and directed the film. SMAP band member Shingo Katori stars as Naki, a red oni (Japanese demon/ogre). Veteran voice actor Kouichi Yamadera (Cowboy Bebop's Spike, Evangelion's Kaji) plays a blue oni named Gunjō. The film earned US$1,287,364 on 334 screens for a new total of US$9,840,793.
Eiga Kaibutsu-kun, the 3D live-action film adaptation of Fujiko Fujio A's Kaibutsu-kun supernatural action manga starring 30-year-old Arashi band member Satoshi Ohno, rose from No. 5 to No. 4 during its sixth weekend. Ohno had starred in a live-action television series version and a spinoff television special in 2010. The film earned the equivalent of US$1,024,770 on 446 screens for a new total of US$32,753,413.
Inazuma Eleven GO: Kyūkyoku no Kizuna Griffon (Ultimate Bond Griffon), the second film in the Inazuma Eleven soccer role-playing game franchise, fell from No. 3 to No. 6 its second weekend. The Inazuma Eleven GO storyline is set one decade after the first Inazuma Eleven storyline; the television anime premiered in May. The film is playing in stereoscopic 3D and traditional 2D. The film earned US$830,109 on 274 screens for a new total of US$8,190,769.
The Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie Taisen Mega Max film rose from No. 8 to No. 7 during its fourth weekend. The film features the first seven Kamen Riders as well as the casts of both the Kamen Rider Fourze and Kamen Rider OOO series. The film earned the equivalent of US$828,493 on 301 screens for a gross-to-date of US$14,762,257.
Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation's K-ON! anime film stayed at No. 9 in its fifth weekend. The film depicts the five female members of Sakuragaoka High School's light music club in a story not seen in the television series. The original television voice cast reprised their respective roles in the movie. The film earned US$681,757 on 137 screens for a gross-to-date of US$16,994,379.
The live-action film adaptation of Mikiya Mochizuki's police action manga Wild 7 directed by Umizaru's Eiichirō Hasumi stayed at No. 10 during its second weekend. In Mochizuki's original manga, a police bureaucrat forms a secret police team out of seven motorcycle-riding outlaws to judge and even execute criminals that the regular police cannot touch. Actor Eita (Nodame Cantabile, Azumi, Densha Otoko) plays Dairoku Hiba, the young leader of the Wild 7. The film earned US$572,400 on 291 screens for a gross-to-date of US$4,301,602.
Source: Box Office Mojo
follow-up of Japanese Box Office, December 24-25