Live-action film Golden Kamuy opened at No. 1 with 533.8 million Yen

The live-action film adaptation of Satoru Noda’s Golden Kamuy manga topped the Japanese box office in its opening weekend from January 19 to 21. The film sold 356,000 tickets and grossed 533,848,690 yen (approx. 3.62 million USD) in its first three days of release.

The film opened in Japan last Friday.

Shigeaki Kubo directed the film at production company CREDEUS. Tsutomu Kuroiwa wrote the script. Yutaka Yamada composes the music. Hiroshi Nakagawa and Debo Akibe were assigned to monitor the Ainu. Japanese rock group ACIDMAN performs the theme song “Kagayakerumono”(Those Who Shine).

Satoru Noda launched the manga in Shueisha’s Young Jump magazine in 2014 and ended it in April 2022. The manga has inspired four anime seasons, and production of the final anime season has been greenlit.

2023 「劇場版 SPY×FAMILY」製作委員会 ©遠藤達哉／集英社

The SPY×FAMILY Code: The white anime film dropped from #1 to #2 in its fifth weekend, after four weeks at #1. The film sold 189,900 tickets for 261,352,510 yen (approx. 1.77 million USD) from Friday to Sunday. The film sold 3.89 million tickets for a cumulative total of 5,238,789,840 yen (about US$35.49 million).

The film opens in Japan on December 22. The film is a completely new work with an original story. The film sold 866,000 tickets and grossed 1.224 billion yen (about US$8.61 million) in its first three days of release.

Crunchyroll will stream the film in North America in 2024.

Original manga creator Tatsuya Endō is credited with the film’s original artwork and character designs, and he also supervised the film. WIT STUDIO and CloverWorks animated the film again.

The film’s new cast includes Tomoya Nakamura as Dmitri, Kento Kaku as Luka, Banjō Ginga as Snijder and Shunsuke Takeuchi as Type F.

Image via Let’s Karaoke! live-action movie website

Yama Wayama’s live-action Let’s Go Karaoke! The manga (Karaoke Iko!) jumped from 8th to 7th in its second weekend. The film earned 77,177,550 yen (about US$522,800) from Friday to Sunday and has earned a total of 223,806,970 yen (about US$1.52 million).

The film opened in Japan on January 12. The film earned 83,089,290 yen (about US$569,700) in its first three days of release.

The film had its world premiere at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan on November 15. Director Nobuhiro Yamashita attended.

The film was previously scheduled to open last year, but was delayed to January 2024.

Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, live-action film Cream Lemon) directed the film, with a script by Akiko Nogi (INU-OH, Library Wars, live-action film I Am a Hero).

Wayama released the manga as a dōjin publication in 2019 and Kadokawa published it in September 2020. The manga came in third place in the 14th Manga Taisho awards in 2021. The manga has 500,000 copies circulated.

Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki’s new film in TOHO’s Godzilla franchise, dropped from seventh to eighth in its 12th weekend of release. The film earned 73,143,340 yen (about $495,500) from Friday to Sunday. The film earned a total of 5,454,610,580 yen (about US$37.0 million).

Godzilla Minus One opens in Japan on November 3, 2023 (“Godzilla Day”), which is the anniversary of the release of the first Godzilla film on November 3, 1954. The new film is screening at the Festival Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) as the closing film of this 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 showings. date available at the Japanese box office. The film sold 14.7% more tickets and earned 22.8% more in its first three days than the last Japanese live-action Godzilla film, Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Godzilla, did. made it in the first three days of 2016.

Ryunosuke Kamiki plays the main character Kōichi Shikishima, and Minami Hamabe plays the female lead Noriko Ōishi. (Both also starred in NHK’s weekday morning drama Ranman.) Other cast members include Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Andō, and Kuranosuke Sasaki.

Image via Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo’s website

The Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo (Kitarō Birth: The Mystery of Gegege) anime film dropped from 6th to 9th place in its 10th week of release. The film earned 64,775,820 yen (about $438,800) from Friday to Sunday. The film grossed a total of 2,344,966,920 yen (about US$15.89 million).

The film opened in Japan on November 17 and sold 111,500 tickets and earned 160,106,620 yen (about US$1.07 million) in its first three days of release.

Gō Koga (Gegege no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, One Piece Episode of Sabo) directed the series at Toei Animation, and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, World Trigger, 2018’s 13-episode GeGeGe no Kitarō) wrote the script. . Touko Yatabe (GeGeGe no Kitarō 2018 third ending director, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time assistant director) designed the characters. The main cast includes Toshihiko Seki as Kitarō’s father, who later becomes Medama Oyaji, and Hidenobu Kikuchi as Mizuki, a salaryman who comes to a cursed village under secret orders.

Image via Comic Natalie

Detective Conan vs. Kid the Phantom Thief, the compilation film of the Detective Conan franchise, dropped from 9th to 10th in its third weekend.

The film opened in Japan on January 5, ahead of the release of the upcoming Detective Conan: Hyakuman Doru no Michishirube on April 12. The film grossed 189,438,900 yen (about $1.30 million) in first three days.

The compilation film combines and re-edits the television episodes including the debut of Kid the Phantom Thief, and adds a new scene to the story in episode 76, when Conan and Kid have their first confrontation. The special also features exclusive new footage of the “cherished interaction” between the two characters.

The movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete 4K Remaster was ranked No. 1 in the mini cinema rankings in its first weekend.

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