News
36th Doraemon Film Earns 4 Billion Yen, Sets New Franchise Record
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Eiga Doraemon Shin Nobita no Nihon Tanjō (Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016), the 36th anime film in the Doraemon franchise, has earned more than 4.037 billion yen (about US$37.7 million). The film sold about 3,559,400 tickets in the 62-day period from its opening on March 5 to May 5.
The film is the 11th installment and highest earning film in the new Doraemon film series. The 2013 film Doraemon: Nobita no Himitsu Dōgu Museum held the previous record, with 3.98 billion yen (about US$37.2 million) in box-office earnings.
The latest film sold 544,816 tickets for 637,035,600 yen (about US$5.62 million) to rank #1 on its opening weekend. The film opened on 374 screens across Japan.
The film is a remake of the Doraemon: Nobita no Nihon Tanjō (Doraemon: Nobita at the Birth of Japan) film, which originally opened in Japan in March 1989. Tsutomu Shibayama (chief director of the 1979 Doraemon television anime series and many of the films) directed the film. In the film's story, Nobita comes up with the idea of running away from home because he is always being scolded at home and at school. Additionally, Gian, Shizuka, and Suneo all have their own reasons for running away from home. Together with Doraemon, they all travel through time to the Japan of 70,000 years ago.
The original film boasts the largest theatergoing audience in the Doraemon film franchise, with 4.2 million tickets sold.
The new Doraemon television and film series began when the current main voice acting team took over the roles of Doraemon, Nobita, Suneo, Shizuka, and Gian in 2005. The previous voice actors retired to make way for a younger cast.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
Images © Fujiko Productions・Shogakukan・TV Asahi・Shin-Ei・ADK 2016
