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Japanese Box Office, September 6–7: 20th C. Boys at #1 (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The first segment of Yukihiko Tsutsumi's three-part adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys manga rose from #2 to #1 in its second weekend. The distributor TOHO expects the first live-action movie to make over 4 billion yen (about US$37 million), which means TOHO will have distributed seven films that each made over 1 billion yen (US$10 million) since June. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Hayao Miyazaki's first feature film in nearly four years, also rose from #3 to #2 in its eighth weekend. Ponyo is expected to be Toei's (and Japan's) #1 movie of 2008.
Toshio Lee's live-action adaptation of Kiminori Wakasugi's Detroit Metal City rock parody manga stayed at #4 in its third weekend. Toei estimates that the film will make 2.2 to 2.3 billion yen (US$21 to 22 million) over its entire run. The live-action film version of Yumiko Ōshima's Gou-Gou Datte Neko De Aru (Cher Gou-Gou…mon petit chat, mon petit ami) manga, as directed by Isshin Inudou (live-action Touch film), opened at #8. Kunihiko Yuyama's Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl: Giratina to Sora no Hanataba Shaymin, the Pokémon franchise's 11th feature film, dropped from #7 to #9 in its eighth weekend.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Guren-hen, Hiroyuki Imaishi and Gainax's first movie compilation of their Gurren Lagann series, opened in limited release on 11 screens on September 6. It made 21 million yen (US$200,000) in its first two days. Although the limited release was not in the top-10 chart, the film had a higher per-screen average than 20th Century Boys.
Sources: Kogyo Tsushinsha, Variety Japan, Variety Japan (second article)
Image © 1999 Naoki Urasawa Studio Nuts/Shogakukan
© 2008 20th Century Boys Movie Production Committee
Update: TOHO corrected for 20th Century Boys' distributor. Thanks, MetatronM.
follow-up of Japanese Box Office, August 30–31: Ponyo Drops to #3
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history