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Precure Dream Stars! Film Opens at #5, but Kuroko's Basketball Earns More

The Eiga Precure Dream Stars! (Precure The Movie: Dream Stars!) anime film ranked #5 in attendance in its first weekend. It sold 135,000 tickets for 158 million yen (about US$1.4 million). The film is the 22nd and latest in the Precure All Stars film series. It featured 12 Precure from 2015's Go! Princess Precure!, 2016's Maho Girls Precure!, and the Kirakira ☆ Precure a la Mode anime. The film opened in Japan on March 18 on 213 screens.

Gekijōban Kuroko no Basuke Last Game (Kuroko's Basketball The Movie: Last Game), the anime film adaptation of Tadatoshi Fujimaki's Kuroko no Basuke Extra Game sequel manga, ranked #6 in attendance and #1 in its per-screen average in its opening weekend. The film opened in Japan on March 18 on 91 screens. It sold 124,000 tickets over the weekend for 190 million yen (about US$1.7 million). (Its average ticket price was higher than that of Eiga Precure Dream Stars!, which aimed for audiences in lower age ranges and thus lower ticket prices.) The film's three-day total (including Monday) was 170,000 tickets for 250 million yen.

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 #3 in its third weekend. As of two weekends ago, the newest Doraemon film had earned about 692 million yen (about US$6.07 million) and sold about 590,000 tickets. It sold 433,000 more tickets for 507,000,000 yen (about US$4.14 million) last weekend.

The first of two live-action films based on Chika Umino's March comes in like a lion (Sangatsu no Lion) manga debuted at #7 in its opening weekend. The film opened on March 18 on 294 screens. The second film opens on April 22.

Ancien and the Magic Tablet (Hirune Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari), the new anime film by director Kenji Kamiyama, ranked #9 in its first weekend. The film opened in Japan on March 18 on 231 screens.

The Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale anime film dropped from #5 to #10 in its fifth 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.

Makoto Shinkai's your name. film dropped off the ranking after 29 straight weekend in the top 10. As of this past weekend, the film had cumulatively earned 24.74 billion yen (about US$220 million), which is 740 million yen (about US$6.6 million) less than the #3 movie of all time in Japan, Frozen.

The Gekijōban Ultraman Orb - Kizuna no Chikara Okari Shimasu (Ultraman Orb the Movie - I'll Borrow the Power of Bonds), and the live-action film version of Matcha Hazuki's One Week Friends manga both dropped off the ranking this weekend. It is the former's second weekend (ranked #6 in its debut weekend), and the latter's fifth weekend (ranked #9 last week).

Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru: Washio Sumi no Shō: Tomodachi did not open in the overall top 10, but it ranked #1 on the mini-theater ranking. The previous #1 on that ranking, Overlord: The Dark Warrior, dropped to #3.

Seven of the overall top 10 films are animated (including #1 Sing and #2 Moana.)

Sources: Eiga.com, Kogyō Tsūshin