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Japanese Box Office, August 30–31: Ponyo Drops to #3
posted on by Mikhail Koulikov
After being the top-grossing movie at the Japanese box office for six weekends, Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea has been knocked down to the third spot during the August 30–31 weekend. Director Peter Berg and actor Will Smith's Hancock opened at #1 with 830.72 million yen (about US$7.67 million) on 328 theaters. The first segment of Yukihiko Tsutsumi's three-part adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys manga debuted at #2 and made 625.61 million yen (US$5.78 million) on 310 screens. The entire trilogy's budget is about US$55 million, and distributor Toei expects the first movie alone to make over 5 billion yen (US$46 million). International territories in which the film is set to play include the United Kingdom, France, and South Korea — where it will open on September 11 in that country's largest-ever premiere of any Japanese film. The other two chapters in the trilogy will come at six-month intervals.
Despite dropping to #3, Ponyo has nonetheless brought in 12.7 billion yen (US$117 million) over its entire Japanese box office run. It is Japan's most successful domestic film since the winter of 2004-05; Miyazaki's previous film, Howl's Moving Castle, opened on November 21, 2004 and went on to make 18.2 billion yen (US$169 million).
Toshio Lee's live-action adaptation of Kiminori Wakasugi's Detroit Metal City rock parody manga dropped from #2 to #4 in its second weekend. Kunihiko Yuyama's Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl: Giratina to Sora no Hanataba Shaymin, the Pokémon franchise's 11th feature film, dropped from #5 to #7 in its seventh weekend. Boys Over Flowers: Final (Hana Yori Dango Final), Yasuharu Ishii's live-action film finale based on Yoko Kamio's Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango) romantic comedy manga, stayed at #8 in its tenth weekend. The twin movie billing of Kamen Rider Kiva and Engine Sentai Go-onger also stayed at #9 in its fourth weekend.
Source: Kogyo Tsushinsha, Screen Daily, Variety Japan
Image © 1999 Naoki Urasawa Studio Nuts/Shogakukan © 2008 20th Century Boys Movie Production Committee
follow-up of Japanese Box Office, August 23–24: DMC at #2
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history
