News

Japanese Box Office, October 11-12

The live-action film of Rin Mikimoto's shōjo manga series Kin Kyori Renai (Close Range Love) opened this weekend at #2. The film stars Tomohisa Yamashita as the tsundere teacher Haruka Sakurai and Nana Komatsu in her debut role as genius high school student Yuni Kururugi. The film ranked #1 on Box Office Mojo's chart and earned 178,422,771 yen (US$1,661,603).

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen), the second of two sequels to the 2012 live-action Rurouni Kenshin film, fell from #1 to #3 in its fifth weekend. The sequels adapt the Kyoto arc of Nobuhiro Watsuki's original manga, with Takeru Satoh returning as Kenshin Himura and Tatsuya Fujiwara (live-action Death Note) playing the antagonist Makoto Shishio. The film also ranked #3 on Box Office Mojo's chart and earned 142,358,757 yen (US$1,325,749) on 354 screens for a total of 3,733,189,817 yen (US$34,799,526).

Eiga HappinessCharge PreCure! Ningyō no Kuni no Ballerina (HappinessCharge Precure! The Movie: Ballerina of the Country of Dolls) opened this weekend at #5. Yui Horie, Daisuke Ono, and Toshiyuki Morikawa guest star in a story where the Pretty Cures must save the Doll Kingdom. The film also ranked #5 on Box Office Mojo's chart and earned 100,361,638 yen (US$935,895) on 210 screens.

Stand By Me Doraemon, the 36th Doraemon film and franchise's first CGI film, fell from #3 to #6 in its tenth weekend. Satoshi Tsumabuki, who previously played 30-year-old Nobita in a series of live-action Toyota car commercials, also plays Nobita as a young man in the film. The film also ranked #6 on Box Office Mojo's chart and earned 73,067,209 yen (US$681,184) on 344 screens for a new total of 8,112,561,740 yen (US$75,631,060).

The first live-action adaptation of Lupin III in four decades fell from #5 to #8 in its seventh weekend. The movie stars Shun Oguri as Lupin, Tadanobu Asano as Detective Kōichi Zenigata, Gou Ayanoas Goemon Ishikawa, Tetsuji Tamayama as Daisuke Jigen, and Meisa Kuroki as Fujiko Mine. Jerry Yan (Meteor Garden) of the popular Taiwanese group F4 will play an original character, Lupin's nemesis Michael Lee. The film also ranked #8 on Box Office Mojo's chart and earned 42,619,866 yen (US$396,907) on 312 screens for a new total of 2,284,612,177 yen (US$21,296,378).

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno), the first of two sequels to the 2012 live-action Rurouni Kenshin film, fell from #10 to #15 on Box Office Mojo's chart in its eleventh weekend and earned 13,996,313 yen (US$130,519) on 241 screens for a total of 5,376,931,429 yen (US$50,127,572).

Sources: Kogyo Tsushinsha, Box Office Mojo