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One Piece Film Red Stays at #1 for 8th Weekend, Delicious Party Precure Film Opens at #3

The One Piece Film Red anime stayed at #1 for a eighth straight weekend at the Japanese box office. The film earned 358,051,530 yen (about US$2.47 million) from Friday to Sunday, and sold 259,000 tickets over the weekend. The film has sold a total of 11.26 million tickets, and has earned a cumulative total of 15,696,453,630 yen (about US$108 million).

The film has overtaken Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo anime film as both the #6 all-time highest-earning anime film in Japan and the #11 all-time highest earning film in Japan.

One Piece Film Red opened in Japan on August 6. The film ranked #1 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film sold 1.58 million tickets and earned 2.254 billion yen (about US$16.7 million) in its first two days. The film earned 78% more in its first two days than the previous film One Piece Stampede did in its first three days (One Piece Stampede opened on a Friday, as opposed to One Piece Film Red's Saturday opening). It has become the franchise's highest-selling and highest-earning film installment, in terms of both the number of tickets sold and yen earned at the box office. It has also topped Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest-earning film to open in Japan so far this year.

Crunchyroll will release in the United States and Canada on November 4, and in Australia and New Zealand on November 3. In addition, Crunchyroll Expo Australia will host the subtitled premiere on September 16, followed by the North American premiere in New York on October 6 (which is also the first day of New York Comic Con).

The film centers on a new character named Uta, Shanks' daughter. Kaori Nazuka is the speaking voice of Uta, while Ado is the character's singing voice. Ado also performs the film's theme song "Shinjidai" ("New Genesis"). Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak! special) directed One Piece Film Red. Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film Gold, One Piece: Heart of Gold, GANTZ:O, live-action Black Butler) wrote the screenplay, and One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda himself served as executive producer.

Eiga Delicious Party♡Precure Yume Miru ♡ Okosama Lunch (Delicious Party Precure The Movie: The Dreaming Child's Lunch), the anime film for the Delicious Party♡Precure anime, opened on Friday at #3. The film sold 308,000 tickets and earned 367,352,310 yen (about US$2.54 million) in its first three days, and sold 154,000 tickets and earned 186,154,590 yen (about US$1.28 million) on Saturday and Sunday.

Akifumi Zako (Hugtto! Precure) is directing the film. Jin Tanaka (Eiga Mahō Tsukai Precure! Kiseki no Henshin! Cure Mofurun!, Star Twinkle Precure: Hoshi no Uta ni Omoi wo Komete) is penning the script. Hitomi Matsuura (Precure Miracle Universe) is designing the characters and is also the chief animation director. Shiho Terada returns from the television anime to compose the music. Mika Hironaka is the animation director. Keito Watanabe is the art director. Naomi Kiyota is the color key artist. Kenji Takahashi is the director of photography. Moeha Nochimoto is performing the film's theme song "Yōkoso, Okosama♡Dreamia" (Welcome to the Child's Dreamia).

Delicious Party♡Precure is the 19th and newest Precure (Pretty Cure) television anime series, and it premiered on ABC, TV Asahi, and 22 other affiliated stations on February 6. The series will be available on 13 different subscription streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and hulu. Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs in Japan.

The keywords of the story are "Meals bring smiling faces." Cookingdom is the mysterious realm responsible for all the cuisine in our own world. The story begins when the Recipe-Bon, where the recipe for every dish is written down, is stolen from Cookingdom. The culprit is the Bundoru gang, who aims to monopolize every dish for themselves.

Energy Fairies arrive at the human realm's "Oishii na Town" (Delicious Town) to search for the Recipe-Bon, and they grant three girls powers to transform into Precure magical girls. The Precure girls stand up to the Bundoru gang to take back the Recipe-Bon.

The HiGH&LOW The Worst X (pronounced "cross"), the sequel film to the HiGH&LOW THE WORST crossover film, rose from #7 to #6 in its third weekend. The film earned 60,936,460 yen (about US$421,900) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 635,674,910 yen (about US$4.40 million).

The film opened on September 9.

The sequel brings back cast members from the first film. EXILE HIRO is producing the sequel film, and Norihisa Hiranuma is returning to direct with Daisuke Ninomiya as a general director. Masaki Suzumura is the action director, and Takahito Ouchi is supervising the action. Shoichiro Masumoto, Kei Watanabe, and Hiranuma are writing the screenplay.

Gekijō-ban Utano☆Princesama♪ Maji Love ST☆RISH Tours, the latest film in the Utano☆Princesama franchise, droppes from #4 to #8 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 52,188,370 yen (about US$361,300) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 743,110,850 yen (about US$5.14 million).

The film ranked at #7 in its opening weekend. The film sold 86,500 tickets and earned 140 million yen (about US$996,400) in its first three days. The film earned about 69.61 million yen (about US$495,400) on its opening day on September 2, earning 63% more than the previous film in the franchise, Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, did on its first day when it opened in Japan in June 2019.

The film opened on Friday and is playing in 128 theaters across Japan. The film — described as part of a "new theatrical film series" — is entirely composed of concert footage of the ST☆RISH idol group. Noriyasu Agematsu was once again credited as the original creator with Broccoli. Elements Garden composed the music, and A-1 Pictures produced the film. Shochiku is distributing the film.

The first two episodes of the television anime of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura's Blue Lock soccer manga opened at #3 in the mini-theater rankings on Friday.

The anime will air on October 8 on TV Asahi and its affiliates in the "NUMAnimation" programming block.

Tetsuaki Watanabe (Powerful Pro Yakyū Powerful Kōkō-hen) is directing the anime at 8-Bit with Shunsuke Ishikawa as assistant director. Taku Kishimoto (Haikyu!!, Silver Spoon, 2019 Fruits Basket) is supervising and writing the series scripts, and the manga's Kaneshiro is supervising the story. Yutaka Uemura (Saga of Tanya the Evil director) is the concept adviser. Masaru Shindō (Fruits Basket, Macross Delta, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU) is the main character designer and chief animation director, and Kenji Tanabe and Kento Toya are also character designers and chief animation directors. Jun Murayama is composing the music. Shugo Nakamura will perform the anime's ending theme song "Winner."

The series has appointed Takumi Minamino, who plays soccer for AS Monaco and the Japanese national team, as its official ambassador and "honorary captain."

Kaneshiro and Nomura launched the ongoing manga in Weekly Shonen Magazine in August 2018. The manga won the Best Shōnen Manga award in Kodansha's 45th annual Manga Awards last year.

Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), comScore via KOFIC