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2024 Anpanman Film Opens at #1 in Ticket Sales, Look Back Opens at #1 in Earnings
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The film opened in Japan last Friday. Actress Aya Ueto (live-action Azumi, Thermae Romae) voices the film's central character Lulun, while comedian Takashi Okamura voices a rampaging elephant.
The film's story centers on Anpanman's nemesis Baikinman, but this time, he attempts to become a warrior of love and courage when he is sucked into a picture book. Inside the book is a large forest where fairies live. Baikinman meets the fairy Lulun, who asks him to defeat an elephant that is rampaging in the forest. Although Baikinman is reluctant, he tries his best to defeat the elephant. However, it is too strong for Baikinman, so he tells Lulun to call Anpanman to help protect the picture book world.
The film opened in theaters in Japan last Friday.
Yūmi Kawai and Mizuki Yoshida star in the film. Kawai plays Fujino, a fourth grader who draws four-panel comics in the school newspaper. Yoshida plays Kyomoto, Fujino's classmate who has been skipping school.
Kiyotaka Oshiyama (Flip Flappers) directed the anime, and was also in charge of the screenplay and character designs. Oshiyama's Studio Durian produced the film. Singer urara is performing the film's theme "Light song" by composer Haruka Nakamura.
Fujimoto debuted the one-shot manga on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ in July 2021. The manga had over 2.5 million views on its first day. Viz Media and MANGA Plus launched the manga digitally in English. Viz Media published the manga in print in September 2022. The company describes the story:
The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn't be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together. A poignant story of growing up and moving forward that only Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of Chainsaw Man, could have crafted.
The film is now the highest-grossing film in the franchise, beating last year's Detective Conan: Kurogane no Submarine (Iron Submarine) film's 13.83 billion yen (about US$88.23 million) earnings.
The film is the second film in the franchise to have earned 10 billion yen, but Case Closed: The Million-dollar Pentagram earned it two days faster than Detective Conan: Kurogane no Submarine did. Detective Conan is now the first Japanese-animated film franchise to have two consecutive films pass 10 billion yen in earnings in Japan.
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 first of the Bocchi the Rock! anime compilation films, titled Bocchi the Rock! Re:, dropped off the top 10 in its fourth weekend. Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Shinjidai no Tobira (Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Beginning of a New Era), a new anime film in the Uma Musume Pretty Derby franchise, also dropped off the top 10 in its sixth weekend.
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web (link 2) comScore via KOFIC
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