News

One Piece Film Red Stays at #1 for 7th Straight Weekend

The One Piece Film Red anime stayed at #1 for a seventh straight weekend at the Japanese box office. The film earned 580,877,040 yen (about US$4.04 million) from Friday to Sunday, and sold 412,000 tickets over the weekend. The film sold over 10.72 million tickets for a cumulative total of 14,755,032,100 yen (about US$102.64 million) as of Sunday.

The film has overtaken Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You as both the #7 all-time highest-earning anime film in Japan and the #13 all-time highest earning film in Japan.

One Piece Film Red opened in Japan on August 6. The film ranked #1 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film sold 1.58 million tickets and earned 2.254 billion yen (about US$16.7 million) in its first two days. The film earned 78% more in its first two days than the previous film One Piece Stampede did in its first three days (One Piece Stampede opened on a Friday, as opposed to One Piece Film Red's Saturday opening). It has become the franchise's highest-selling and highest-earning film installment, in terms of both the number of tickets sold and yen earned at the box office. It has also topped Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest-earning film to open in Japan so far this year.

Crunchyroll will release in the United States and Canada on November 4, and in Australia and New Zealand on November 3. In addition, Crunchyroll Expo Australia will host the subtitled premiere on September 16, followed by the North American premiere in New York on October 6 (which is also the first day of New York Comic Con).

The film centers on a new character named Uta, Shanks' daughter. Kaori Nazuka is the speaking voice of Uta, while Ado is the character's singing voice. Ado also performs the film's theme song "Shinjidai" ("New Genesis"). Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak! special) directed One Piece Film Red. Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film Gold, One Piece: Heart of Gold, GANTZ:O, live-action Black Butler) wrote the screenplay, and One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda himself served as executive producer.

Gekijō-ban Utano☆Princesama♪ Maji Love ST☆RISH Tours, the latest film in the Utano☆Princesama franchise, stayed at #4 in its third weekend. the film earned 103,932,920 yen (about US$723,000) from Friday to Sunday. The film has sold 370,000 tickets to earn a cumulative total of 580 million yen (about US$4.04 million).

The film ranked at #7 in its opening weekend. The film sold 86,500 tickets and earned 140 million yen (about US$996,400) in its first three days. The film earned about 69.61 million yen (about US$495,400) on its opening day on September 2, earning 63% more than the previous film in the franchise, Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, did on its first day when it opened in Japan in June 2019.

The film opened on Friday and is playing in 128 theaters across Japan. The film — described as part of a "new theatrical film series" — is entirely composed of concert footage of the ST☆RISH idol group. Noriyasu Agematsu was once again credited as the original creator with Broccoli. Elements Garden composed the music, and A-1 Pictures produced the film. Shochiku is distributing the film.

The HiGH&LOW The Worst X (pronounced "cross"), the sequel film to the HiGH&LOW THE WORST crossover film, dropped from #2 to #7 in its second weekend. The film earned 75,466,960 yen (about US$525,000) from Friday to Sunday.

The film opened on September 9.

The sequel brings back cast members from the first film. EXILE HIRO is producing the sequel film, and Norihisa Hiranuma is returning to direct with Daisuke Ninomiya as a general director. Masaki Suzumura is the action director, and Takahito Ouchi is supervising the action. Shōichirō Masumoto, Kei Watanabe, and Hiranuma are writing the screenplay.

Kingdom II: Harukanaru Daichi e (To Distant Lands), the sequel film based on Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom manga, dropped off the top 10 in its 10th weekend, but still earned 27,751,950 yen (about US$192,900) from Friday to Sunday, and has earned a cumulative total of 4,996,968,450 yen (about US$34.75 million).

Ensemble Stars!! Road to Show!!, the new theatrical anime film for Happy Elements' Ensemble Stars! franchise, returned for a one-week screening run from September 16 to 22, and includes all the ""Bukusuta The WORLD" shorts with the screenings. This screening run ranked at #3 in the mini-theater ranking for the week.

Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2, link 3), Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, comScore via KOFIC