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39th Doraemon Film Tops Japanese Box Office for 4th Straight Weekend

Eiga Doraemon no Nobita no Getsumen Tansaki (Doraemon the Movie: Chronicle of the Moon Exploration), the Doraemon franchise's 39th film, remained at #1 at the Japanese box office for its fourth consecutive weekend. The film sold 262,000 tickets for 311 million yen (about US$2.82 million) over the weekend. It has earned a cumulative total of 2.8 billion yen (about US$25.42 million) with 2.45 million tickets.

The film opened on 382 screens on March 1 and sold 645,000 tickets for 757 million yen (about US$6.77 million) to top the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. From March 2-3, the film earned 82.6% of the earnings from last year's Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Takarajima film in its opening weekend. Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Takarajima holds the record as the highest-grossing film in the current 14-installment Doraemon film series after earning a total of 5.37 billion yen (about US$48.1 million) at the box office. Each Doraemon film in the past three years has set a new franchise box-office record.

The film's story relates to the Japanese folkloric belief that a rabbit resides on the moon. The film is set on the moon and centers on strong friendships bound together by the "ability to believe." Luna is a mysterious girl who lives on the far side of the moon. Diabolo and his subordinate Goddard stand in the way of Nobita and his friends on their moon exploration journey.

Shinnosuke Yakuwa (Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016, Doraemon the Movie: Nobita in the New Haunts of Evil - Peko and the Five Explore) directed the film, which is his first work directing from an original script. Naoki Prize-winning mystery author Midzuki Tsujimura (Tsunagu, Kagami no Kojō) wrote the script, and she also wrote a novel adaptation, which debuted on November 16. Dai Hirai performed the theme song "The Gift."

The live-action film adaptation of Mineo Maya's Tonde Saitama (Fly Me to Saitama) manga jumped back from #4 to #2 in its fifth week at the box office. The film sold 127,000 tickets for 175 million yen (about US$1.58 million) over the weekend. It has sold a cumulative total of 1.93 million tickets for 2.5 billion yen (about US$22.7 million).

After opening on February 22, the film sold 191,000 tickets for 259,038,800 yen (about US$2.33 million) on Saturday and Sunday to top the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film is expected to surpass 3 billion yen (about US$26.8 million) at the box office.

Hideki Takeuchi (live-action Nodame Cantabile, Thermae Romae) directed the film, and Tomokazu Tokunaga (live-action Densha Otoko) wrote the script. Hanawa performed the film's theme song "Saitama-ken no Uta" (The Song of Saitama Prefecture).

There are two parts to the film: a "legend part" that focuses on Rei and Momomi, and a "modern part" that focuses on a certain Saitama family through whom the legend is told.

In the story, those who live in Saitama Prefecture are ruthlessly persecuted by those who live in Tokyo, so the citizens of Saitama Prefecture hide this fact from others. High school student Momomi Dannoura is the son of the governor of Tokyo, and he is also the student council president at Hokuhodo Academy, the top high school in Tokyo. One day, he meets Rei Asami, a mysterious transfer student who has returned from America. Rei and Momomi are captivated by each other, but Momomi knows Rei is from Saitama Prefecture. The manga tells the story of two people split by a prefectural border, a Saitama "Romeo and Juliet." The couple try to elope and start a revolution to liberate Saitama Prefecture.

Eiga Precure Miracle Universe, the newest movie in the Precure franchise, dropped from #3 to #5 in its second weekend. The film earned 104,783,800 yen (about US$951,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 521,766,400 yen (about US$4.73 million).

The film ranked #3 in its opening weekend. The film earned about 248 million yen (about US$2.22 million) and sold about 221,000 tickets in its first two days, and has set a record for an opening weekend for a spring Precure film. The film opened in Japan on March 16.

The new Eiga Precure Miracle Universe film is primarily set in space, and the story reveals the secret of the "Miracle Lights," the mysterious critical items which appear frequently in the franchise's films. (The lights are distributed to children attending theatrical screenings.) Characters from Kirakira ☆ Precure a la Mode, Hugtto! Precure, and the new Star ☆ Twinkle Precure anime star in the film.

Yukio Kaizawa, who co-directed the Kirakira ☆ Precure a la Mode series, returned to direct the film. Isao Murayama (Eiga Kirakira ☆ Precure a la Mode: Paris to! Omoide no Mille-Feuille!, Maho Girls Precure) penned the script. Yuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia) and Asami Tachibana (DARLING in the FRANXX) composed the music.

The Eiga no Osomatsu-san anime film dropped from #7 to #9 in its second weekend. The film earned 53,372,700 (about US$484,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has cumulatively earned 286,207,900 yen (about US$2.59 million yen).

The film ranked at #7 in its opening weekend. The film opened in Japan on March 15.

The film centers on the sextuplets at a high school class reunion. There, they see all their former classmates who have become "proper" adults with company jobs. The sextuplets sulk about this and go home and drink until they fall asleep. But when they wake up, a certain scene awaits them.

The film's returning staff members include director Yoichi Fujita, scriptwriter Shū Matsubara, character designer Naoyuki Asano, and Studio Pierrot on animation production. Shochiku is distributing the movie. The film will also include returning cast members.

The Mr. Osomatsu television anime is inspired by Fujio Akatsuka's original Osomatsu-kun manga and "high tension comedy" TV anime, which centered on the Matsuno household with six naughty and mischievous sons (who are sextuplets). All of the sextuplets, including the eldest Osomatsu, are all in love with the same girl, Totoko. The original Osomatsu-kun series followed the family when the sons were 10 years old. Mr. Osomatsu re-imagines the original manga and TV anime with the sextuplets as adults.

The theatrical screenings of the anime adaptation of its Grisaia: Phantom Trigger game dropped from #1 to #2 on the mini-theater rankings in its second weekend. The film opened on March 15 at Tokyo's EJ Anime Theater Shinjuku and at four other theaters in Japan.

The anime's first two episodes were originally slated to debut simultaneously in 2018, with region-free Blu-ray Discs slated to ship last December. Rewards for crowdfunding backers will now ship in the first quarter of this year. The English dub will be included on the Blu-ray Disc release. Each episode was originally planned to be 60 minutes long and would adapt one volume of the original visual novel.

Anime director Tensho founded the new animation studio Bibury Animation Studio to produce the anime as its first work. Tensho is also writing and supervising the scripts. Akio Watanabe, the original character designer for the Grisaia franchise, is serving as the anime's character designer and chief animation director. Ryuichiro Yamakawa is planning and producing the anime. Frontwing is funding the anime on its own instead of using a production committee.

Sources: Eiga.com, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC