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The Deer King Film Debuts at #7, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Film Stays at #1
posted on by Adriana Hazra
The Gekijō-ban Jujutsu Kaisen 0 anime film stayed at #1 in its seventh weekend. The film sold 263,000 tickets and earned 419 million yen (about US$3.63 million) on Saturday and Sunday. The film earned 76% more than it did the previous weekend due to the film opening in 4D and Dolby Cinemas and having a new bonus for theatergoers.
The movie has sold 7,603,732 tickets for 10,456,322,400 yen (about US$90.6 million) in the 45 days since it opened on December 24.
The film is now the #1 highest-earning film at the Japanese box office from the 2021 calendar year, after surpassing Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time, according to the Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web.
The film earned 2,694,128,150 yen (about US$23.5 million) in its first three days, and topped the box office chart for its opening weekend. The film also has IMAX screenings. The film will open with English subtitles and with an English dub in the U.S. and Canada on March 18.
The film is based on Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Tokyo Toritsu Jujutsu Kōtō Senmon Gakkō (Jujutsu Kaisen 0: Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School) manga prequel story, with MAPPA animating again and Toho distributing. Viz Media released the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 manga in January 2021, and it describes the story:
Yuta Okkotsu is a nervous high school student who is suffering from a serious problem—his childhood friend Rika has turned into a Curse and won't leave him alone. Since Rika is no ordinary Curse, his plight is noticed by Satoru Gojo, a teacher at Jujutsu High, a school where fledgling exorcists learn how to combat Curses. Gojo convinces Yuta to enroll, but can he learn enough in time to confront the Curse that haunts him?
Megumi Ogata voiced the main character Yuta Okkotsu, and Kana Hanazawa voiced the character Rika Orimoto.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, the first live-action film reboot of CAPCOM's Resident Evil survival horror game franchise, fell from #3 to #6 in its second weekend.
The film opened in Japan on January 28.
The film opened in the United States on November 24, delayed from its originally scheduled September 3 release.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City is set in the late 1990s with the following story introduction:
In the once booming home of the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company's exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, the townspeople are forever…changed…and a small group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.
Shika no Ō: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi (The Deer King: The Promised Journey With Yuna), the anime film of Nahoko Uehashi's Shika no Ō (The Deer King) medical fantasy novel series, ranked at #7 in its opening weekend.
The film was delayed from a September 2020 opening due to the ongoing new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and delayed again from September 2021. GKIDS will theatrically screen the film with both English subtitles and an English dub in North America in early 2022.
Masashi Ando (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, your name. character design; Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent, When Marnie Was There, your name. animation director) directed the film alongside Masayuki Miyaji (Xam'd: Lost Memories, Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress) at Production I.G. Ando also drew the character designs, and was the chief animation director. Taku Kishimoto (Haikyu!!, ERASED, Fruits Basket) penned the script. Harumi Fuuki (Forest of Piano series, Miss Hokusai, Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna) composed the music. Singer-songwriter milet created the theme song "One Reason" for the film.
The live-action film of Tetsuya Tsutsui's noise manga fell from #5 to #8 in its second weekend. The film opened in Japan on January 28.
The suspense manga is set in a rural hunting town that has been suffering from a steadily shrinking population due to aging and migration over the course of many years. But when the town begins producing a product known as the "black fig," it begins bringing money and opportunity back to the town. The story begins when Keita Izumi, a caretaker of a black fig plantation, meets a man with an air that is ill-fitting for the town.
The film stars Tatsuya Fujiwara as Keita Izumi and Kenichi Matsuyama as Jun Tanabe. The two actors previous co-starred in the live-action Death Note films. Ryunosuke Kamiki plays Shinichirō Moriya, a rookie police officer in the film's remote island setting. His accidental killing of ex-convict Mutsuo Omisaka begins the story. Daichi Watanabe also has a role in the film. Haru Kuroki plays Kana Izumi, Keita's wife. Masatoshi Nagase plays Tsutomu Hatakeyama, a skilled police detective tracking Keita and the others.
The first part of The Orbital Children (Chikyūgai Shōnen Shōjo or Extra-Terrestrial Boys & Girls), director and writer Mitsuo Iso's first new original anime since 2007's Dennō Coil, fell to #2 in the mini-theater ranking in its second weekend.
The anime is screening in two parts theatrically in Japan. The first part opened on January 28, and the second part will open on February 11. Each part will screen for two weeks only in theaters. The theatrical project also has a simultaneous release on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.
Netflix also debuted the anime outside of Japan on January 28 as a six-episode series.
The Uchū Senkan Yamato 2205: Aratanaru Tabidachi - Kōshō -STASHA- film opened outside of the top 10 last weekend.
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), Eiga.com
