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Shinkai's 'your name.' Film Opens at #1 in S. Korea

Makoto Shinkai's your name. (Kimi no Na wa.) anime film opened in South Korea on Wednesday and ranked #1 at the box office. The film sold 130,000 tickets to earn 100 million yen (about US$859,000) on opening day.

The last time a Japanese film topped the box office in South Korea was when Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle film premiered in 2004. your name. opened on 555 screens in South Korea, which is a new record for a Japanese film. South Korea lifted its ban on Japanese films in 1998.

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) revealed that the film was leading in the advance tickets sales as of 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday for movies opening in the new year, ahead of Hollywood film Passengers.

The film screened at the 18th Bucheon International Animation Film Festival in October, and won both the Special Distinction Prize and the Audience Prize for the feature film category. It is the first film of its category to win both awards.

The anime film rose from #7 to #3 at the box office in Japan in its 19th weekend. Shinkai's film has sold a total of about 17,350,000 tickets in Japan to earn about 22.4 billion yen (US$192.5 million).

The anime has now earned box-office achievements in South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan. As of New Year's Day, the film became the top-grossing 2D animated film in China of all time.

Shinkai's film already broke all-time records in China for most advance tickets sold, fastest film to reach 100 million yuan (US$14 million or 1.7 billion yen), earning 100 million yuan in just the opening day, and highest-grossing Japanese film. It also became the highest-grossing Japanese film to date in Thailand.

The film has also earned over 30 million Hong Kong dollars (US$3.9 million or 450 million yen) as of Tuesday after opening in Hong Kong on November 11. It is now the #2 top-grossing Japanese film in Hong Kong to date.

your name. opened in Taiwan on October 21 and became the highest-grossing Japanese film in Taiwan. The film topped the Taiwanese box office chart in its opening three-day weekend, becoming the first Japanese film since the 2012 live-action Thermae Romae film to do so.

your name. is now the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the second highest-grossing Japanese film, and the second highest-grossing anime film. The only Japanese film to gross higher is Spirited Away (30.8 billion yen).

The film is slated to open in 92 countries and territories, including in the United States through Funimation in the first quarter of this year.

Shinkai's latest film had topped the Japanese charts for nine straight weekends since it opened on August 26, and in its 10th weekend dropped to #2 to Death Note Light up the NEW world, before regaining the top spot in its 11th weekend, and it stayed at the top spot in its 12th and 13th weekends.

Sources: Chūō Nippō, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web