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Live-Action Cells at Work! Drops to #2 After 5 Weeks
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The film opened in Japan on December 13 and ranked at #1. The film sold a total of 612,000 tickets and earned a total of 844,768,310 yen (about US$5.49 million) in its first three days.
The film has 4D (4DX and MX4D) and IMAX screenings in Japan.
Hideki Takeuchi (live-action Nodame Cantabile, Thermae Romae, Fly Me to Saitama) directed the film, with a script by Yūichi Tokunaga (live-action Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Liar x Liar, Princess Jellyfish). Warner Bros. Japan distributed the film. Official HiGE DANdism performed the theme song "50%."
The film is based on the manga's live-action series. The series' lead actor Yutaka Matsushige again stars in the film, and also directed the film. He also co-wrote alongside Yoshihiro Taguchi. The film opened on January 10. The film also screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from October 28 to November 6 last year.
The film is part of the Kodoku no Gourmet Project, which celebrates the series' 12 years of broadcast and TV Tokyo's 60th anniversary. The staff also announced Sorezore no Kodoku no Gourmet (To Each Their Own Solitary Gourmet), a program that debuted on October 4 last year. The omnibus series follows various main characters (besides Yutaka Matsushige's Gorō, who was the main character in all the previous projects) on their own culinary journeys.
Both the Kodoku no Gourmet live-action series and original manga follow a solitary salesman named Gorō Inagashira as he travels all over Japan and samples the local cuisine found on street corners. The live-action show's 10th season premiered in October 2022.
The film opened in Japan on December 20. It sold 198,000 tickets in its first weekend, including advanced screenings, earning 295 million yen (about US$1.87 million) from Thursday through Sunday.
The movie is based on Kazuhisa Sakaguchi's 2013 novel of the same name, which centers on Rantaro's teacher Hansuke Doi losing a battle against Sonnamon and Zatto Konnamon becoming a teacher at Ninjutsu Academy.
Yasuhiro Mamiya voices Happōsai Hieta, replacing the late Shōzō Iizuka, who voiced the character in the anime series. In addition, Naniwa Danshi members Ryūsei Ōnishi and Jōichirō Fujiwara appear in the film as guest voice actors.
Masaya Fujimori (Doraemon movies) returned from the previous film to direct the new one at Ajia-do, the same animation studio for the television series. Original novel writer Sakaguchi wrote the screenplay.
TOHO opened the film on December 20. It debuted at #6 at the box office.
The comedy manga imagines if Buddha and Jesus shared a low-rent Tokyo apartment with no bathroom.
The returning cast and staff from the manga's previous live-action series adaptations include Ken'ichi Matsuyama (Promare's Galo Thymos) as Jesus and Shōta Sometani (BELLE's Kamishin, Suzume's Minoru Okabe) as Buddha. Yūichi Fukuda (live-action Gintama, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. films) is returning to direct the film and pen the script based on an extended story ("Screen e no Nagai Michi" or The Long Road to the Big Screen) that Nakamura created for the film.
Oshi no Ko -The Final Act-, the film finale of the live-action series adaptation of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari's Oshi no Ko manga, dropped off the top 10 in its fourth weekend, but still earned 33,913,100 yen (about US$214,700) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 498,466,800 yen (about US$3.15 million).
The live-action film of author Reiko Hiroshima and illustrator jyajya's children's novel series Fushigi Dagashiya Zenitendō dropped off the top 10 in its fifth weekend.
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin(link 2), comScore via KOFIC
