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Shinkai's 'your name.' Becomes #1 Japanese Film in China of All Time

Makoto Shinkai's your name. (Kimi no Na wa.) anime film has earned 533 million yuan (about US$76.6 million or 9.02 billion yen) in China as of Saturday — thus becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film in China to date. According to the Chinese movie ticketing website Maoyan.com, your name. surpassed the 530-million-yuan earnings (US$76.2 million) of the previous record-holder, last year's Stand By Me Doraemon.

Shinkai's latest film opened in China on December 2, and it already earned the biggest opening weekend of any Japanese animated film in China with US$41 million (compared to the previous record-holder Stand By Me Doraemon with US$38.5 million last year). It also earned the biggest opening weekend of any hand-drawn animated film in China — topping this year's Chinese film Big Fish & Begonia (US$34.2 million).

Variety reported last Sunday that your name. earned the equivalent of US$15.1 million more to top China's box office for the second weekend in a row.

The film had sold 30 million yuan (about 450 million yen or US$4.4 million) in pre-sale tickets as of its opening day. The film then opened in as many as 7,000 theaters in China on December 2, and sold 2.77 million tickets for 70 million yuan (1.2 billion yen or US$10.9 million) on 66,000 screenings on its first day. It then earned US$17.4 million more on its second day. Shinkai personally came to Beijing to promote his film last month.

The film has earned 20,510,000,000 yen (about US$177.6 million) in Japan as of Monday, surpassing the 20.3 billion yen earnings of the Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone. The your name. film is now the fourth highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the second highest-grossing Japanese film in Japan, and the second highest-grossing anime film in Japan. The only Japanese film to gross higher is Spirited Away (30.8 billion yen).

The film had earned 20 billion yen at the Japanese box office as of last week, when it announced IMAX screenings will be held in Japan for two weeks starting on January 13. The film is unrolling into 92 countries and territories, including the United States through Funimation.

Shinkai's latest film had topped the Japanese charts for nine straight weekends since it opened on August 26, and in its 10th weekend dropped to #2 to Death Note Light up the NEW world, before regaining the top spot in its 11th weekend, and it stayed at the top spot in its 12th and 13th weekends.

Stand By Me Doraemon was the first Japanese film to get a general release in China in two years, since China blocked Japanese films in 2013 and 2014 due to the diplomatic disputes at the time. While only two Japanese films received a nationwide release in China last year, 11 received a nationwide release this year.

Sources: Reuters, The Japan Times