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37th Doraemon Film Slips to #2 at Box Office

Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Nankyoku Kachi Kochi Daibōken (Doraemon the Movie 2017: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi), the 37th anime film in the Doraemon franchise, dropped from #2 to #1 in the Japanese box office in its second weekend. It sold 433,000 more tickets for 507,000,000 yen (about US$4.14 million) during the weekend. Disney film Moana earned the #1 spot after opening in Japan on Friday.

As of last week, the newest Doraemon film had earned about 692 million yen (about US$6.07 million) and sold about 590,000 tickets. Compared to last year's Doraemon Shin Nobita no Nihon Tanjō film, this year's film performed 8.6% better in its first weekend, and is expected to surpass the earlier film's 4.12 billion yen (about US$36.15 million) total gross. The newest film opened in Japan on March 4 on 371 screens.

The Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale anime film dropped from #3 to #5 in its fourth weekend. As of its third weekend, the film had earned earned a cumulative 1,370,738,380 yen (about US$12.03 million) and sold 1,012,331 tickets in Japan The film sold about 308,376 tickets for 425,762,760 yen (about US$3.76 milion) in its opening weekend. The film is the first anime film to rank #1 in both weekend attendance and weekend box office receipt totals since Makoto Shinkai's your name. The film also set the opening-weekend record among films distributed by Aniplex.

Gekijōban Ultraman Orb - Kizuna no Chikara Okari Shimasu (Ultraman Orb the Movie - I'll Borrow the Power of Bonds), the live-action film of the Ultraman Orb series, ranked #7 in its first weekend. The film opened in Japan on Saturday.

The live-action film version of Matcha Hazuki's One Week Friends manga dropped from #6 to #9 in its fourth weekend.

Makoto Shinkai's your name. film dropped from #9 to #10 in its 29th straight weekend in the top 10. The film has cumulatively earned 24.65 billion yen (about US$214.7 million), which is 830 million yen (about US$7.2 million) less than the #3 movie of all time in Japan, Frozen.

Shimajirō to Niji no Oasis (Shimajirō and the Rainbow Oasis), the fifth Shimajirō film which combines anime and live-action, opened at #11.

The live-action film of Sei Hatsuno's HaruChika: Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru "concert band youth mystery" novel series fell off the ranking in its second weekend. The film ranked #8 in the Japanese box office in its first weekend.

Sources: Eiga.com, Movie Walker