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27th Detective Conan Film Stays at #1, BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi- Opens at #2
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The film ranked at #1 in its opening weekend, selling 2,274,333 tickets and earning 3,352,494,500 (about US$21.7 million) yen in its first three days. The new film has exceeded the opening weekend of Detective Conan: Kurogane no Submarine (Iron Submarine), the 26th film that opened last year, making it the new best three-day opening for the franchise. The new film also has the biggest opening weekend for a film so far this year in Japan, beating HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle, which sold 1,529,000 tickets and earned 2,230,465,540 yen (about US$14.83 million) in its first three days.
Case Closed: The Million-dollar Pentagram is the 27th film in the Detective Conan franchise, and it is the first to have midnight screenings. The film premiered in Japan on April 12. The film is screening in 515 cinemas across Japan, the largest number of theater screenings in the history of the Detective Conan film series, and also has screenings in IMAX in 50 theaters, MX4D in 14 theaters, 4DX in 64 theaters, and Dolby Cinema in eight theaters.
AIKO performs the film's theme song "Sōshi Sōai" (Mutual Love).
The anime film of Kōta Sannomiya's BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi- spinoff of Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yūsuke Nomura's Blue Lock soccer manga sold 337,000 tickets to earn 463 million yen (about US$2.99 million) in its first three days, and ranked at #2 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend.The BLUELOCK -Episode Nagi- film opened in Japan on Friday. The film will have four mini-anime titled "BLUELOCK Additional Time!" after the credits for the first four weeks of the film's screening. The mini-anime episode shown will change each week. The film is also screening in IMAX, MX4D, and 4DX. Crunchyroll will screen the film in theaters in North America on June 28 in both English subtitles and an English dub.
The film features returning cast and staff members. The television anime's assistant director Shunsuke Ishikawa directed the film at 8-Bit. Taku Kishimoto (Haikyu!!, Silver Spoon, 2019 Fruits Basket) supervised and wrote the series scripts, and the manga's Kaneshiro supervised the story. Nomura is credited as the character designer. Jun Murayama composed the music.
Nissy and SKY-HI perform the theme song "Stormy." Takahiro Nishijima is a member of the group AAA and does solo work under the name Nissy. MItsuhiro Hidaka is also part of the band and uses the name SKY-HI for his solo work.
The spinoff manga focuses on Seishirō Nagi before he enters the titular Blue Lock facility. Kodansha USA Publishing announced in October it will start releasing the spinoff manga in print in fall 2024.
.The Onmyoji 0 live-action film, a prequel to the 2001 Onmyōji film based on Baku Yumemakura's novel series of the same name, ranked at #3 in its opening weekend. The film sold 187,000 tickets and earned 255 million yen (about US$1.64 million) in its first three days.The film opened in Japan on Friday.
The film stars Kento Yamazaki as a young practitioner of mystical arts named Abe no Seimei. The movie follows Seimei as he uncovers the mystery behind a curse and dragon that appears in Kyoto.
An anime adaptation of Yumemakura's Onmyōji novels premiered on Netflix in November 2023. Yumemakura first wrote the franchise as a series of short stories starting in 1986. He then wrote three full-length novels for the franchise, in 2000-2008. The book series also includes several picture books.
The novels inspired the Onmyōji and Onmyoji II live-action films in 2001 and 2003. Reiko Okano drew a 13-volume manga adaptation of the series starting in 1994. The books have also inspired several live-action series in Japan.
HAIKYU!! The Dumpster Battle (Gekijōban Haikyu!! Gomi Suteba no Kessen), the first film in the two-part Haikyu!! Final sequel film project, stayed at #4 in its ninth weekend. The film earned 202,904,950 yen (about US$1.31 million) over the weekend. The film has sold a total of 6.83 million tickets sold for 9,776,560,030 yen (about US$63.17 million).The film premiered in Japan on February 16 and is also screening in IMAX. Susumu Mitsunaka (first, third Haikyu!! television anime) both directed and wrote the script for the film.
The film sold 1,529,000 tickets and earned 2,230,465,540 yen (about US$14.83 million) in its first three days of screening.
The film opened on March 15. The film sold 344,000 tickets and earned 474 million yen (about US$3.13 million) in its first three days.
The film stars Shōtarō Mamiya (live-action Blue Giant, Tokyo Revengers) as Amamiya, Jirō Satō (live-action Gintama) as Kurihara, and Rina Kawaei (live-action Ajin) as Yūki.
Asukashinsha published the first novel in July 2021, and the second novel on December 15. The novel tells the mystery of a house with a room that had no doors, no windows, and is tucked away, making it look like it was just a wall. But the house holds some very dark secrets.
Kyō Ayano launched the novel's manga adaptation on Ichijinsha's comic HOWL web manga service in January 2023. Seven Seas licensed the manga under the title The Strange House.
The film opened at #1 on March 1. The film sold 538,000 tickets from Friday to Sunday for 655,555,580 yen (about US$4.37 million) in its first weekend.
The new film has a music theme, as Doraemon and friends go on an adventure to meet new buddies, connect to people with music, and save the world from a crisis.
Kazuaki Imai (Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Treasure Island, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's New Dinosaur) directed the film. Teruko Utsumi, a writer for the Doraemon television anime, penned the script for the film. The television anime's current cast members reprised their roles for the film.
The film opened in Japan on November 3, 2023 ("Godzilla Day"), which was the anniversary of the first Godzilla film's November 3, 1954 release. The new film screened at The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of last year's event on November 1.
The film sold 648,600 tickets for 1,041,193,460 yen (about US$6.93 million) in its first three days in the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last live-action Japanese Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla, did in its first three days in 2016. The film has earned over 6.01 billion yen (about US$39.9 million) and sold 3.92 million tickets as of March 3, its 122nd day of screening in Japan. According to Kōgyō Tsūshinsha, the film is now the #1 live-action film released in Japan in 2023 (this includes all live-action films that opened in Japan in 2023, but still earned revenue in 2024).
Godzilla Minus One also won the Best Visual Effects award in the 96th Academy Awards on March 10. It is the first Japanese film to win in this category, and the first Godzilla film to be nominated for an Oscar.
The film is screening in 353 cinemas in Japan, and added 4DX, MX4D, and Dolby Cinema screenings starting on February 9.
The film opened at #1 in the Japanese box office, selling 634,182 tickets for 1,065,983,130 yen (about US$7.20 million) in its first three days, marking the Gundam franchise's highest three-day opening in box office earnings. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM opened in Japan on January 26. The film is planned to screen in 56 countries and territories.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda directed the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) designed the characters.
The first film of the two-part anime film adaptation of Inio Asano's Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction manga is still off the top 10 in its fifth weekend, but still earned 15,186,980 yen (about US$98,100) from Friday to Sunday. The film has earned a cumulative total of 330,538,130 yen (about US$2.13 million).
Sources: Gundam press release, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC