That baby is such a boss at the Japanese Box Office.

Man this weekend in Japan Jumanji the giant finally arrives but as mentioned here their seems not to be must interest in this movie but hopefully, it can surprise.

I don't think its going to hold as well going forward but I never thought TBB will end within $10m-$15m total of Coco in Japan.

It will depend on how well they hold this weekend but perhaps even more importantly next weekend. Unfortunately it seems like both the annual Crayon Shin-chan movie and the annual Detective Conan movie are being released on a Friday this year, for some reason, as opposed to the usual Saturday, so Doraemon, Coco and TBB will all be losing a share of their screens and seats a day earlier.

Yes, everything needs to make as much as it can before April 13th. The newest Detective Conan has potential to deliver the biggest opening weekend in several years, so it's going to command the bigger screens. And a couple weeks later, Golden Week begins and with it comes many openers that'll largely reduce the March holdovers to barely wide/limited releases in terms of screens and showtimes.

Interesting and good to know which means there is a chance that these movies end up even closer because TBB seems to be gaining on the difference with Coco.

Any idea why they're being released on a Friday ? I don't remember a Japanese movie ever being released that day (previews excluded) and here we have two in one weekend.

Get ready to see a lot more! I'm not sure if it's going to become the norm, but starting this month and through to the end of the year, there are many Japanese films scheduled for release on Friday instead of the traditional Saturday. There's actually so many that I feel like I've missed the memo about some schedule change announcement. It'll be interesting to track and see how they perform.

Also, Friday, or earlier, openings for Japanese releases aren't too uncommon. If there's a holiday prior to the weekend, you'll sometimes see local films get released on that day to take advantage of the increased business. And Friday, or earlier, releases also happens sometimes during extended holiday periods such as Golden Week or Obon Festival for the same reason. However, it's very rare for Japanese films to be released before the weekend during regular weeks.

That is indeed surprising to hear. Maybe Japan is eventually looking at Fri-Sun weekend like most of the world.

We'll see. I honestly haven't had much time to read actual movie-related news over the past few months, so I could have missed something important. I'll do some research into it in the near future.

Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and acclaimed director, passed away today at 82. Sad day.

And Thursday just about does it for the Spring Break boost this year for the box-office. I'll post Friday's estimates tomorrow as planned, even though the day will likely be really weak (morning ticket sales are very low), and everything will go back to normal next week.

RIP. I have seen Grave of the Fireflies and Pom Poko. I saw Takahata as a storyteller with something of substance to tell. He did not shy away from tackling serious and timely subject matter (such as conservation of environment). His animated films confronted reality and did not gloss over sadness.

Corpse, will his death have any effect on the box office?

My rank on his films
1: Only Yesterday 2: Pom Poko 3: Tale of Princess Kaguya 4: My Neighbor Yamada 5: Grave of Fireflies

No. Studio Ghibli itself hasn't released a film since 2014 after disbanding their film production department (although they did co-produce 2016's The Red Turtle).

However...Hayao Miyazaki is planning to release his "final" film in 2020 ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games titled How Do You Live? with Studio Ghibli "re-opening" by issuing former staff short-term contracts to work on the film. The film is based on a Japanese novel, and is said to be in development with Miyazaki's grandson in mind after he (Miyazaki) passes away.

Spring Break is definitely done boosting the box-office now after those Fri.-to-Fri. drops to deliver that mediocre Friday.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle failing to open at #1 for the day is pretty disappointing, although not exactly surprising either.

Western comedies are typically difficult to market and rarely find an audience in Japan; the vast majority just bomb outright if they're given a wide release. And even heavily marketing the film as an action-adventure film versus a comedy wouldn't have done much considering The Rock, while probably being recognizable from WWE and the Fast and Furious franchise, isn't a draw in the market, nor are any of the other cast members. It also doesn't help that Sony is the distributor -- they've really struggled in recent years.

It'll probably improve a decent amount over the weekend frame, but it could wind up debuting in third or as low as fourth place. I'll post the Weekend Forecast in a couple hours.