So Frozen just sold over 1 million copies on Blu-ray in 3 days.

All-Time Top Selling DVDs (Blu-ray included in totals):

01. 2,401,992 - Spirited Away
02. 1,565,000 - Finding Nemo
03. 1,514,000 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
04. 1,384,000 - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
05. 1,370,000 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
06. 1,327,915 - Howl's Moving Castle
07. 1,265,000 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
08. 1,247,560 - My Neighbor Totoro
09. 1,197,000 - The Matrix Reloaded
10. 1,158,000 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
11. 1,125,000 - Michael Jackson's This is It
12. 1,122,000 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
13. 1,046,000 - Frozen [Blu-Ray Copies Only After 3 Days...]
14. 1,032,000 - The Last Samurai
948,451 - Ponyo
943,000 - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
937,000 - The Matrix Revolution
932,999 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
794,696 - Castle in the Sky
743,000 - The Incredibles
732,000 - Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
667,504 - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
640,000 - Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance
598,000 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
585,000 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
580,000 - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
574,434 - Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo
570,000 - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
570,000 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
536,110 - Kiki's Delivery Service
510,000 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Note: Many of these are estimates, especially those ending in 000.

Again, the above totals are NOT first week sales, but overall sales. And Frozen is already that high after 3-days with just Blu-ray sales reported.

Frozen is already the ~13th best-selling DVD/Blu-Ray ever after 3-days on the market, and that doesn't include the DVD sales. They'll be lower than the Blu-Ray sales, but its first week on the market might be enough to make it the 2nd best-selling DVD/Blu-Ray ever!

It's also the first Blu-ray release to sell over 1 million copies in the market, and the first DVD/Blu-Ray release sinceSpirited Away to sell over 1 million copies in a week, though Frozen needed 3 days and that's only counting the Blu-ray disc sales..

Since Spirited Away came out on DVD when VHS was still a thing, its lifetime sales including the VHS release is 4.1 million.

So Frozen will top Spirited Away in all home media, it seems. And do films not get released on DVD in Japan anymore?

Frozen has made $225m from US DVD/Blu-Ray sales so far. Incredible.

The DVD has made a little over ¥6 billion ($60 million) in just 3 days in Japan so far, and that's just including the Blu-ray sales. Its overall first week sales could end up over ¥9 billion ($90 million).

And to answer your earlier question, films still get released on DVD, but Blu-rays are more popular.

Corpse, if I wanted to watch the Ghibli films, but I didn't like Ponyo, which do you think I might like?

Starting off with Ponyo isn't a good idea. Miyazaki made that one for young children, specifically his grandchildren, to enjoy rather than his or the studios more mature works.

If I'd recommend their films to someone, I'd say...

Must-sees (imo, the core films): Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso*, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away.

Very good: Grave of the Fireflies*, Kiki's Delivery Service*, Whisper of the Heart*, Howl's Moving Castle, The Wind Rises*.

If you have more time: The Cat Returns (see Whisper of the Heart first), Arrietty, Kokuriko Hill*.

And skip unless you liked the majority above (these are the more unique or unpopular films of their library): Only Yesterday*, Pom Poko, My Neighbor the Yamadas*, Tales from Earthsea.

*Light fantasy elements or non-fantasy title.

Haven't seen The Tale of Princess Kaguya yet.

So it will no doubt beat the US sales. Just wow.

Toho Cinemas Admissions [As of 02:30PM]:
27,625 - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
12,902 - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
12,300 (-36%) - Maleficent (Week 3)
8,504 - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
4,628 - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
3,205 (-40%) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
2,445 (-41%) - Frozen (Week 19)
2,155 (-46%) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
1,643 (-31%) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
1,643 (-28%) - Anpanman: The Apple Boy and Everyone's Wishes (Week 3)


Toho, Movix, 109, Kinezo Combined Admissions [As of 02:40PM]:
48,106 - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
25,184 - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
24,195 - Maleficent (Week 3)
17,940 - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
8,012 - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
7,722 - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
5,434 - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
4,690 - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
4,385 - Frozen (Week 19)
2,949 - Anpanman: The Apple Boy and Everyone's Wishes (Week 3)

Pokemon has a strong lead, but it's tracking 8% behind last year's film at the same point in time at Toho Cinemas, and it only increased its admissions at this point by 29.7% for the rest of the day. So at Toho Cinemas, it should be headed for 35,000-37,000 admissions for the day.

That'll be really difficult for Marnie or Maleficent to reach, but they will close the gap considerably.

Toho Cinemas Admissions [Saturday]:
33,778 - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
32,273 (-30%) - Maleficent (Week 3)
27,287 - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
10,676 - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
6,222 (-42%) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
5,653 - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
5,541 (-45%) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
4,556 (-38%) - Frozen (Week 19)
3,137 (-23%) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
2,296 (-45%) - Thirst (Week 4)


Toho, Movix, 109, Kinezo Combined Admissions [Saturday]:
58,540 - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
57,473 - Maleficent (Week 3)
50,464 - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
22,743 - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
13,864 - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
12,334 - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
10,066 - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
7,764 - Frozen (Week 19)
7,400 - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
4,122 - Thirst (Week 4)

And the weekend looks like it's going to underwhelm. It's very unlikely anything earns over 500 million for the weekend unless Sunday is extremely strong, which would be the first time a film failed to reach the mark since around 1992 over this weekend.

Pokemon is trailing last year's film by 13% now at Toho Cinemas, and Memories of Marnie only did 10% better than The Tale of Princess Kaguya at the same locations.

So unless Sunday really changes things, they're looking at opening weekends (Sat/Sun) of:

¥425-450 million ($4.2-4.5 million) / 405,000-425,000 admissions - Pokemon XY
¥425-450 million ($4.2-4.5 million) / 305,000-325,000 admissions - Maleficent
¥310-330 million ($3.1-3.3 million) / 240,000-260,000 admissions - Memories of Marnie

Pokemon and Maleficent look to be fighting out as both of their projections are in the same range based on Saturday results. Pokemon will win the weekend in admissions, however, but the overall franchise has noticeably gotten weaker of the past couple years. If this one opens more than 10% above the last film as it looks like it's going to do, then it will probably be the first new generation film to drop from the last film of the previous generation.

I was hesitant to believe that Youkai Watch, a new series in Japan that's been exploding (higher tv ratings than Pokemon now, and the recent game sold 1.28 million copies in 4 days, which is almost comparable to the Pokemon games themselves), is taking away younger fans and attracting a new group of kids, but that certainly seems to be the case here. The new game actually launched this past week, too, so some budget cautious parents and their kids may have chosen it over the new Pokemon film. Dunno, we'll see as time goes on.

And that's pretty poor for Marnie. It wasn't expected to do Hayao Miyazaki numbers of course, but only doing a bit better than The Tale of Princess Kaguya, and maybe not even matching Up on Poppy Hill is very underwhelming. Some analysts believed Studio Ghibli would suffer after Miyazaki retired, with interest in the brand name dwindling as a results, so there may be some truth to this theory as well. Marnie will likely earn a multiplier over 10, but that may only be good enough for a ¥3-3.5 billion ($30-35 million) total.

As for the other films... pretty damn bad, too. Kamen Rider appears well down once again. The interest in these films are also dropping at a constant pace. And Planes 2 is going to do much, much less than the first film. It's pretty much a bomb based on Saturday.

Toho Cinemas Saturday/Weekend Admissions (Overall Weekend Admissions) [2013-]

Opening Day/Weekend (Overall), OD/OW multiplier (OW/Overall Weekend multiplier)
85,115/167,188 (747,451), x1.96 (x4.47) - The Wind Rises (07/20/13)
64,398/133,273 (649,865), x2.07 (x4.88) - Detective Conan: The Sniper from Another Dimension (04/19/14)
62,250/120,489 (500,837), x1.94 (x4.16) - Maleficent (07/05/14)
59,492/121,802 (614,969), x2.05 (x5.05) - Monsters University (07/06/13)
59,192/123,606 (602,347), x2.09 (x4.87) - Frozen (03/15/14)
51,800/108,724 (539,132), x2.10 (x4.96) - Lupin III vs. Detective Conan (12/07/13)
43,669*/75,635 (322,162), x1.73 (x4.26) - The After-Dinner Mysteries (08/03/13)
42,541/94,650 (530,544), x2.22 (x5.60) - Doraemon: Nobita's Great Demon - Peko and the Exploration Party (03/08/14)
42,537/91,182 (429,918), x2.14 (x4.71) - The Eternal Zero (12/21/13)
40,414*/74,131 (363,451), x1.83 (x4.90) - Midsummer Formula (06/29/13)
39,836/84,982 (365,356), x2.13 (x4.30) - Thermae Romae II (04/26/14)
38,885/85,462 (464,839), x2.20 (x5.44) - Pokemon Best Wishes: ExtremeSpeed Genesect - Mewtwo Awakens (07/13/13)
37,960/88,488* (393,522), x2.33 (x4.45) - SPEC: Close - Incarnation Part 2 (11/30/13)
36,995/79,454 (386,994), x2.15 (x4.87) - The Kiyosu Conference (11/09/13)
35,447/68,592 (330,385), x1.94 (x4.91) - Fast and Furious 6 (07/06/13)
33,778/??,??? (???,???), x?.?? (x?.??) - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (07/19/14)
33,358/76,023 (345,921), x2.28 (x4.55) - SPEC: Close - Incarnation Part 1 (11/02/13)
30,000+/60,000+

*Stage Greeting/Discount Day boost.

Best comparisons for the new Pokemon film? Last year's Pokemon film and Doraemon since it skews very young, too. Children movies in general do worse on average than adult films at Toho Cinemas when we compared the multipliers.

So this tells us that that families/children frequent other cinema chains, like Aeon Cinemas, while teens/adults prefer Toho locations. It's interesting to note, that if this theory continues to hold true, that Maleficent is attracting a lot of teens/adults rather than children or familes.

Some release date changes and new dates announced for the fall/winter season:

October:
10/04 - Under the Skin (Fanfirumuzu)
10/11 - Grace of Monaco (Gaga)
10/11 - Close Range Love (Toho)
10/25 - The Equalizer (Sony) [Old Date: TBD September 2014]

November:
11/01 - Clover (Toho)
11/15 - As the Gods Will (Toho)
11/22 - Mindset (Toei)
11/22 - Interstellar (Warner Bros.) [Old Date: TBD December 2014]
11/22 - Attack on Titan Part I: Crimsom Bow and Arrow (n/a)
11/29 - Parasyte Part I (Toho) [Old Date: TBD December 2014]

December:
12/13 - Aikatsu! The Movie (Toei)
12/13 - Ao Haru Ride (Toho)
12/13 - The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (Warner Bros.) [Old Date: 02/28/15]
12/19 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount) [Old Date: TBD December 2014]
12/20 - Youkai Watch: The Secret of Nyan's Birth! (Toho)
12/20 - Big Hero 6 (Disney)

Advance tickets for the Youkai movie in December also went on sale yesterday, and it's reportedly close to selling 500,000 tickets in a day (nearing sell out status). It's pretty obvious that it's having an impact on the Pokemon series now with this news, along with games sales starting to rival Pokemon's own and higher TV ratings, too.

Nothing has been able to compete against Pokemon on a multi-media level all these years, but maybe it finally does have a rival.

I expect the Japs to love that. But I guess it will be a small release. What's the bar for success?

It'll be a very limited release under that distributor.

Toho Cinemas Sunday Admissions [As of 02:30PM]:
27,666 (+0.1%) - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
20,405 (+66%) - Maleficent (Week 3)
17,065 (+32%) - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
9,208 (+08%) - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
5,646 (+22%) - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
5,224 (+63%) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
3,869 (+58%) - Frozen (Week 19)
3,277 (+52%) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
3,095 (+88%) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
2,185 (+32%) - Anpanman: The Apple Boy and Everyone's Wishes (Week 3)


Toho, Movix, 109, Kinezo Combined Sunday Admissions [As of 02:40PM]:
50,577 (+05%) - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
39,708 (+64%) - Maleficent (Week 3)
33,543 (+33%) - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
19,584 (+09%) - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
11,672 (+51%) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
10,366 (+29%) - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
8,392 (+54%) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
7,753 (+65%) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
7,725 (+76%) - Frozen (Week 19)
5,110 (+73%) - Anpanman: The Apple Boy and Everyone's Wishes (Week 3)

Very big Sunday helps make up for yesterday's disappointing numbers, but let's see how the evening goes.

Percentage increases are over yesterday (below) at the same point in time.

Toho Cinemas Weekend Admissions [7/19-20]:
76,872 (-22%) - Maleficent (Week 3)
67,625 - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
57,913 - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
22,013 - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
14,789 (-30%) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
13,821 (-39%) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
12,487 - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
11,233 (-39%) - Frozen (Week 19)
8,133 (-07%) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
5,376 (-36%) - Thirst (Week 4)


Toho, Movix, 109, Kinezo Combined Weekend Admissions [7/19-20]:
143,157 (-17%) - Maleficent (Week 3)
120,558 - Pokemon XY: The Cocoon of Destruction & Diancie (NEW)
111,538 - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
47,296 - Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! (NEW)
34,051 (-23%) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
30,440 (-38%) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
23,059 - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
20,815 (-34%) - Frozen (Week 19)
19,779 (-03%) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
9,576 (-34%) - Thirst (Week 4)

Who would have thought Maleficent would be looking at a weekend drop in the 20% range against four wide openers, one being the latest Studio Ghibli film, the other the newest Pokemon?

Unless Aeon Cinemas was very, very favorable towards Pokemon, Maleficent looks to repeat atop the box-office for a third-consecutive week. Pokemon still likely won the weekend in admissions (I know, it doesn't look like it above, but it plays much strong at Aeon Cinemas), but Maleficent closed the gap considerably after a massive Sunday.

My weekend projections:

¥460-480 million ($4.6-4.8 million) / 340,000-360,000 admissions - Maleficent (Week 3)
¥395-415 million ($3.9-4.1 million) / 370,000-390,000 admissions - Pokemon XY (NEW)
¥320-340 million ($3.2-3.4 million) / 260,000-280,000 admissions - Memories of Marnie (NEW)
¥140-160 million ($1.4-1.6 million) / 120,000-130,000 admissions - Kamen Rider Gaim (NEW)
¥120-130 million ($1.2-1.3 million) - Edge of Tomorrow (Week 3)
¥90-100 million ($0.9-1.0 million) - Say, "I Love You" (Week 2)
¥80-85 million ($0.8-0.9 million) / 65,000-75,000 admissions - Planes: Fire & Rescue (NEW)
¥75-80 million ($0.7-0.8 million) - Frozen (Week 19)
¥70-75 million ($0.7-0.8 million) - Mission Impossible: Samurai (Week 5)
¥30-35 million ($0.3-0.4 million) - Thirst (Week 4)

Since Monday is a holiday, estimates likely won't be released and actuals will be available on Tuesday.

So the first 500,000 advance tickets for the first Youkai Watch movie to be released on Dec. 20th went on sale Friday, and they've all sold out already...



People began lining up outside theaters as early as 4am Friday morning, and here are some photos people captured:





And the first 500,000 people to purchase a ticket also received this exclusive Yokai medal that can be used in their own yokai watches:

To maybe explain why, what is normally the biggest weekend of the year, was a bust this year, the worst in over 15 years with the lowest grossing #1 film since 1992...

Frozen DVD Release (July 16th):
Frozen was released on DVD and sold 1.514 million copies in a week. That's about ¥8.2 billion ($80 million) worth of sales in a single week.

This gives it the biggest first week sales of ever, ahead of Spirited Away's 1.406 million first week sales, and Finding Nemo's 945,000 first week sales.

But not only did it break the first week sales record, 1.514 million ranks it as the 3rd best-selling DVD ever. In one week, it surpassed the lifetime sales of EVERY film except for Spirited Away and Finding Nemo And it'll become the #2 best-selling DVD really soon when it passes Finding Nemo's 1.565 million copies. DVD/CD sales are very, very frontloaded in Japan, so it'll still need some time before it beats Spirited Away's 2.41 million copies, but it will likely do so.

Yokai Watch 2 Game Release (July 10th) / Advance Movie Tickets Sell Out:
Yokai Watch 2 sold 1.312 million copies in 4 days (about ¥5.4 billion ($52 million) in sales), making it the best-selling video game in Japan already this year and the biggest first-week sales since Pokemon XY last year (1.867 million).

And 3DS sales were up 286% for the week as a result. The first Yokai Watch game was also #3 for the week.

Not to mention that advance tickets for the first movie being released in December sold out of the first wave of 500,000 tickets in 2 days over the weekend. That's about ¥400 million ($4 million) in advance ticket sales. That's also almost 150,000 more tickets than any film did in admissions over the weekend for comparison.

That's a lot of money being spent in a week. So maybe, just maybe, with these two huge releases for families and kids leading into the Summer vacation weekend, the weekend was deflated and will recover next weekend.