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Live-Action Kaiji Final Game Film Drops to #4

Kaiji Final Game, the new live-action film inspired by Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji manga, dropped from #2 to #4 in its fourth weekend at the Japanese box office. It earned 120,022,950 yen (about US$1.10 million) from Friday to Sunday. It has sold a total of 1.2 million tickets for a cumulative total of 1,677,634,600 yen (about US$15.43 million).

The film ranked at #2 in its opening weekend in Japan. The film sold 248,000 tickets and earned 362 million yen (about US$3.29 million) on January 11-12, and sold 437,000 tickets and earned 616 million yen (about US$5.60 million) from January 10-13 (January 13 was a national holiday). The film's opening weekend earnings are 3.5% higher than the opening weekend earnings of the previous 2011 film Kaiji 2 - Jinsei Dakkai Game. While the film sold less tickets than Frozen II (on its eighth weekend in Japan), it earned more yen than Frozen 2 during the weekend.

Kaiji Final Game opened in Japan on January 10 on 333 screens. The film is billed as the "last chapter" of the series, with a completely original story by Fukumoto.

Tōya Satō returned fro the previous two films to direct the new film, and Tatsuya Fujiwara also returned to reprise his role as the titular character.

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul (Gekijōban Made in Abyss: Fukaki Tamashii no Reimei), the new anime film in the Made in Abyss franchise, dropped off the top 10 in its third weekend, but it still earned 46,123,800 yen (about US$424,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 331,007,000 yen (about US$3.04 million).

Maeda Corporation Fantasy Marketing Department (Maeda Kensetsu Fantasy Eigyōbu), a film about a real-life company department that drafts blueprints and budgets for fictional locales such as Mazinger Z's secret base, opened on Friday with 42,541,900 yen (about US$391,000).

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, the second film in the My Hero Academia franchise, also dropped off the top 10 again in its seventh weekend (the film previously dropped off the top 10 in its fifth weekend, and then jumped back to #9 in its sixth weekend). The film still earned 41,491,850 yen (about US$382,000) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 1,636,530,850 yen (about US$15.06 million).

ON-GAKU: Our Sound, the anime film adaptation of Hiroyuki Ohashi's "ON-GAKU" manga, dropped from #3 to #5 in the mini-theater ranking in its fourth weekend. The film opened in Japan on January 11.

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