Thanks. It's "Chikai no finale" that opened two weeks ago, yes

Since Detective Pikachu opens tomorrow, how's the buzz/pre-sales going?

It's receiving fewer screens/seating than both Detective Conan and Avengers, but it still has plenty to allow for a good debut. The screen/seating allocation was always going to be an issue with this release date.

Pre-sales are looking good, but it is opening on a national holiday and nearly anything and everything performs well on holidays, so we can't really get an accurate reading on it yet.

After just 7 days, Avengers: Endgame has outgrossed all but 5 superhero movies: Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Avengers: Infinity War, and Marvel's The Avengers. It'll surpass the original Avengers on Friday, its 8th day in release, and then Infinity War over the weekend on either its 9th or 10th day in release.

Amazing dailies throughout. BO on steroids.

Infinity War out-grossed The Avengers in local currency?

Just barely.

Corpse, do you have an update on BoRhap.?
Incl Admissions

Many thanks

No updates will be available for anything until next Tuesday, at the earliest.

I'm going to post Friday's Estimates here soon. The Top 3 films are very close, but Detective Conan likely edged out the first place victory.

Detective Pikachu will come in second place in admissions, but maybe third place in revenue because of of it having limited premium format showings due to releasing so close to Endgame. And assuming Pikachu may have some family appeal, its average ticket price probably isn't noticeably high (probably just slightly above average). And Endgame is close enough to it in admissions, that while it ranked third in admissions for the day, it could have stayed in second place in revenue. I don't want to have them tied when I post the estimates, so I'll crunch the numbers some more before posting them.

Okay, I'm pretty sure some will come in here thinking Detective Pikachu "disappointed/bombed", or something, but it hasn't. First, it's very early and it's hard to make such a claim after a single day (especially during a holiday week). Second, the number is actually pretty good. It's about on par with the average first day of the annual Pokemon film franchise every July.

There was nothing indicating that Detective Pikachu would be a huge film in Japan. It's always a major misconception that a Hollywood adaptation of a popular Japanese source will be a monster hit in the market, but that's never the case. Hollywood adaptations of domestic source material are always a very difficult sell, often being met with rejection, and have to rely on positive WOM to make them hits. The Japanese reactions to the trailer (Pokemon designs) were lukewarm at best, too.

Also, considering that the Pokemon franchise is almost exclusively a children's franchise in the market, it was going to be hard to directly appeal to them with a darker live-action film. Japan, of course, won't have that nostalgia factor that many other markets will probably have toward the film either.

Actually I thought that's a pretty good opening day, but I wasn't sure if the holiday is skewing the gross into "pretty good opening" territory...

Hi Corpse!

I'm a little surprised at the initial performance of Birthday Wonderland. Is Keiichi Hara not as big a draw in Japan? I'm wondering how it compares with the box office of his previous films, such as Miss Hokusai, Colorful, and Summer Days with Coo.

It could be, yes. Saturday is looking to come in a bit below Friday, and while that's not uncommon during holiday weeks (weekdays can often be bigger than weekends), it's also not very encouraging. But it's still early into the day, and the weekend, so let's wait and see.

The most telling numbers for Detective Pikachu, in particular, will be from Tuesday onward. May/June are very bad months for films that skew toward families and teens, so if it's having any similar appeal to the animated films, it's going to be in some trouble.

Hara's original films have been limited, or near limited, releases, and their box office numbers reflect that. I wouldn't go as far as not calling him a draw though, because I believe Birthday Wonderland may be doing better numbers than any of his other original films. I don't remember any of the others having a consistent (albeit just a week) stay in the Top 10. If anything, he has a small but reliable base.

I'll check on the numbers for his other films over the weekend, as well as get back to everyone else who asked me questions over the past week.

Do you think it was a good release date or could there have been a better one?

What's the Japanese WOM like? Having said that, the Pokemon films have looked really mediocre for years- possibly always-, so it might be hard to get them to buy in to this film even if it is live action.

I didn't like the release date, but I also understand why they wanted it to be released in Japan before anywhere else.

First, the release date was in the middle of Golden Week (even on the tail-end given this year's expanded week), so it couldn't fully benefit from one of the three biggest weeks of the year (the biggest this year). Second, as I said, May and June are weak months for films that target family/kids, so if it's appealing to them, it'll have a bumpy road ahead. And third, most imported films perform better with a later release in the market. Pokemon is a known franchise, obviously, so that typically makes a day-and-date (or earlier in this case) okay to go with, but since this is an original film Hollywood adaptation of a domestic source, a later release could have been used to help promote it better. I would have gone with December.

WOM can take awhile to determine in Japan since it's not a frontloaded market, but so far user scores on movie sites are averaging 3/5.

The yearly animated franchise may look "mediocre", and they can be, mostly because they almost exclusively (like 80/90%) appeal to children in the market, young children (think 12 and under). They always release at the beginning of Summer Vacation every July, so they're always a safe and reliable choice to see in theaters every year.

Pg. Bump ---> (Golden Week, Saturday Estimates)

Last Monday might be close than Saturday-Sunday totals combined for Top 2 movies.

Endgame is now the highest-grossing superhero film ever in the market, after the original Spider-Man trilogy, surpassing Infinity War on its ninth day in release.

Nah. Sunday will be noticeably bigger than Saturday; however, this goes to show how much of an impact a national holiday has on the box-office when it lands on a weekday. A holiday weekday can easily beat a Saturday or Sunday.

And holidays landing on the weekend don't provide much of a boost since a weekend is basically a holiday anything. Just a few more businesses and such are closed when holidays land on weekends.