Thank you.

I'll take this moment to thank everyone who joined over the past year that have contributed greatly to this thread and its discussions, as well as bringing some much needed new users to the forum itself!

Kanroji Mitsuri
KNYtracker777
letsmaybeLP92
Somoset
Hyauku
labas0623
eleking22
MSFK
Kenji26
orionbuble
miko320
Knifer775
gothambank
Manny81
ultimatemegax
ren0080
czarhans
AbrahamOmosun
kzmatt
NezuKo
MagicTrick
bicaraboxoffice
Alo12345
Iscariote
ymblcza
ARQandARG
Aiga
CurrentlyHere
WandaLegion
zheus
Rouk'
rija
chQta
charlie jat
SNS
JustLurking
Huachengzu
Anonymous 06
Boboyo
LPLC (you didn't join in the past year or so, but definitely contributed a lot since!)

I believe that's all of you, but apologies if I missed anyone!

Thanks to you. This forum would be nothing without you. You are there every day, you give us lots of figures, informations, you talk about the news and you answer our questions. It's just a pleasure for us to be able to chat with someone like you.

Awesome work as always Corpse and thank you to all your contributors/posters. The only bright light during COVID for this forum (aside from DS' release) was all of you keeping the discussions lively and additionally bringing in lots of information. Thank you!

Wow!
Demon Slayers's run is just stunning! it wont ever stop amazing me.

And thanks Corpse for the hard work.

Thank you messages:

Corpse, thank you for your detailed analysis and also breakdown of all records. Thank you so muchhhhhhhh

I'm still rooting for DS2 pulling a HP2...

Thank you so much Corpse for the data you've posted here! You presented them well and clearly and I got hooked! I've learned a lot also because of these discussions. Thank you for everyone in the world of kj community, too!

Thank you so much Corpse! our contributions are nothing compared to yours which have been going for years. I've gotten a liking to tracking JP box office due to you! As well as learned so much just by lurking here and reading your analysis. It is really an amazing site.

Here are some estimated admissions for Japanese movies from Germany 1959-1966:

2,588,000 1966 Onibaba - Die Töterinnen / Onibaba / Onibaba
2,148,000 1965 U 2000 – Tauchfahrt des Grauens / Kaitei gunkan / Atragon
1,266,000 1961 Barfuß durch die Hölle / Ningen no jôken / The Human Condition
1,225,000 1964 Frauen unter nackter Sonne / Nippon No Yoru: Onna Onna Onna Monogatari / Women... Oh, Women!
940,000 1960 Hiroshima, mon amour / Nijuuyojikan no jouji / Hiroshima Mon Amour
904,000 1965 Der Lohn der Mutigen / Yûsha nomi / None But the Brave
900,000 1961 Wer sind Sie, Dr. Sorge? / Spy Sorge: Shinjuwan zenya / Soviet Spy
755,000 1959 Das Grauen schleicht durch Tokio / Bijo to ekitai ningen / The H-Man
664,000 1964 Wir warten in Ashiya / Ashiya kara no hiko / Flight from Ashijya
557,000 1960 Weltraum-Bestien / Chikyû Bôeigun / The Mysterians
511,000 1962 Barfuß durch die Hölle 2. Teil: Die Straße zur Ewigkeit / Ningen no jôken: Dai 2 hen / The Human Condition Part II
500,000 1964 Okinawa - Die längste Schlacht / Taiheiyô Sensô to Himeyuri Butai / The Pacific War and Himeyuri Corps
473,000 1966 Geschichten hinter Wänden / Kabe no naka no himegoto / Affairs Within Walls
458,000 1960 Der Rikschamann / Muhomatsu no issho / The Rickshaw Man
426,000 1964 Das Frauenlager von Kampili / Shiroi hada to kiiroi taichô / Internees of Kampili
414,000 1966 X 3000 - Fantome gegen Gangster / Uchû daikaijû Dogora / Dogora
398,000 1963 Die Brücke nach Imphai / Gonin no totsugeki tai / ?
358,000 1960 Der König der silbernen Berge / Ginrei no ôja / Storm on the Silvery Peaks
248,000 1965 Night Ladies / Nihiki no mesu inu / Two Bitches

1966 added

No you're welcome! This has been a fun community to be a part of!

Don't have time to really put together any Weekend Estimates today, but I'll share the details on the Top 5 this weekend:

1. Burning Sword debuted at #1 as expected, earning around ¥220/230 million ($2 million) on 150,000/160,000 admissions or so over the weekend. Its three-day total should be around ¥300 million ($2.6/2.7 million) on 200,000 admissions or a bit higher. Good start, this film had been delayed for a good while. Should get near ¥1.5 billion ($13 million) and a little over 1 million admissions.

2. No Time to Die had a so-so hold in its third weekend, dropping about 35%, but it was good enough to only slip to second place. It should be around ¥1.75/1.8 billion ($15/16 million) after three weeks now. Any small shot it had at outgrossing Spectre to become the highest grossing Daniel Craig 007 film are certainly gone now though, but it'll beat Quantom of Solace with ease still, likely outgross Casino Royale, and come reasonably close to Skyfall. So not a grand sendoff, but respectable enough.

3./4. Dune disappointed, but unfortunately that's not too surprising. I'm estimating it debuted in third place (probably fourth place in admissions), earning around ¥150-170 million ($1.4/1.5 million) on about 100,000 admissions over the weekend. Its three-day total should be around ¥210/220 million ($1.8/1.9 million) on 140,000/150,000 admissions or so. It should have been pushed back a few months. The day-and-date release is largely a hinderance for Western releases in Japan, and without any prior knowledge (on a wide-scale) of the property or the film in the market with little/no time to market it, it was likely to disappoint. And while the stars of the film might be appealing to Western audiences, they're largely unknown in Japan (rapidly aging country).

3./4. Masquerade Night delivered a strong hold of just over 20%, and while it likely fell to fourth place in its fifth weekend in revenue, it probably just edged Dune out in admissions. It's comfortably over ¥3 billion now, probably around ¥3.15/3.2 billion ($29 million), and keeps it chances of reaching ¥4 billion ($35 million+) pretty good.

5. Lupin's Daughter, follow-up on the TV drama series, rounded out the Top 5, earning around ¥110/115 million ($1 million) on ~80,000 admissions over the weekend. Its three-day total should be around ¥140/150 million ($1.3/1.4 million) on around 100,000 admissions. Nothing exciting, but pretty standard for an average film this (weak) time of year.

And that's a look at the Top 5! I'll have the Weekend Actuals, etc., posted tomorrow as normal.

Dune might miss ¥1B if it doesn't leg well as Eiga says that the immediate goal of the film is to reach ¥700-¥800M.

Yeah, it's likely to miss ¥1 billion. It came in just a tad lower than I estimated: ¥148 million ($1.3 million) / 91,000 admissions (only good enough for 5TH! in admissions, not even 4th as I thought). 3-Day hasn't been released yet, which is really unusual (sign of disappointment). ¥800 million ($7 million) is the likely total it'll be aiming for. You can likely call it a bomb now. IF it would manage to leg it out to ¥1 billion, it can go from bomb to disappointment, but that's going to be a tough milestone to reach with this opening and time of year.

Wasn't expecting anything big from it, of course, but in hindsight, even ¥1/1.5 billion ($10/15 million) was probably about as much that should have been expected. The film really had nothing going in its favor besides good but not raving reviews, and good but not great box office results where released. But unless these two factors are significant (rave reviews, big international box office), it does little to nothing to help. So its two "positives" were barely positives that wouldn't have convinced many to see a mostly unknown film (due to releasing too early) adapted from a mostly unknown book (or at least limited appeal) with mostly unknown stars (younger stars aren't very marketable in Japan) in the market. Big budget sci-fi Hollywood film with good reviews is really all it had, and that's not going to lure hardly anyone.

This is why delayed releases in Japan are common, at least prior to the pandemic/streaming. Many films open months later in Japan for a good reason. January/February would have been ideal. With Dune's good reviews, and possible solid upcoming box office in the U.S. and perhaps elsewhere, a later release would have allowed Warner Bros. to adopt a proper marketing strategy and allowed potential audiences to gain interest in it, especially if it would get any award consideration. Of course, looking at the numbers, there likely wasn't a lot of potential here, but failing to get to even ¥1 billion is pretty unacceptable, really.

Sorry Corpse, I regret it for its failure. I can not imagine any Imported works performing well other than NTTD and F9 looks like we have got another year of disappointed foreign release.

It is an interesting divide. Japanese films are doing perfectly fine. They honestly have been since July 2020.

2020 saw 21 Japanese films earn over ¥1 billion. Now, that's down almost 50% compared to 2019, but most years of the last 20 years have 30-35 Japanese films reach that mark. So while a drop-off of course, due to the first half of 2020 (and some delays), it wasn't too drastic. In fact, 2020 had more Japanese films earn over ¥1 billion than in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.

2021 currently has 24 films Japanese above ¥1 billion, and is looking likely to reach 30 films. So, pretty close to being back to normal levels. In more recent years, Japanese films have been able to reach/exceed 40 films above the mark (2016/2019) and are averaging more in the high 30s.

But it's a totally different tale for imported (Hollywood) films.

2020 only had 4 imported (Hollywood) films earn over ¥1 billion. That's the lowest ever on record by a shocking amount, off 80-90% from the average year, with most years for them over the past 10 years averaging around 25. So whopping decline. But, this is also in part due to tons of delays or not even releasing films theatrically. So there's that "reason."

And 2021? Well, only 4 imported (Hollywood) films are above ¥1 billion currently this year, too! And with Dune likely to miss, 2021 is unlikely to have any other imported films get there... So 2021 saw no improvement for them, and is still down 80-90% on average for imported (Hollywood) films in this regard despite the first half of the year being normal, and many more films being released.

Japan has become a market where Japanese films have outperformed imported (Hollywood) films regularly, with Japanese films beating imported films every year since 2008, but we could be looking at a general departure away from Hollywood as studios like Disney/Warner Bros. focus more on streaming and shorter theatrical windows (thus forcing the poor strategy of day-and-date releases in Japan), combined with the rapidly aging Japanese population.

[Top Opening Weekends: 2021
Gross ¥ ($) / Admissions [Screen Count] - Film (Distributor)

¥1.609 billion ($14.8 million) / 1,122,000 [497] - Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (Toho)
¥1.177 billion ($10.8 million) / 760,882 [466] - Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (Toho/Toei/Khara)
¥1 billion ↨
¥679.9 million ($6.2 million) / 459,000 [414] - Belle (Toho)
¥593.0 million ($5.7 million) / 423,000 [348] - New Interpretation Record of the Three Kingdoms (Toho)
¥535.9 million ($4.9 million) / 374,000 [356] - Masquerade Night (Toho)
¥535.1 million ($4.8 million) / 351,848 [840] - F9: The Fast Saga (Toho-Towa)
¥528.3 million ($4.8 million) / 386,000 [350] - Tokyo Revengers (Warner Bros.)
¥526.0 million ($4.9 million) / 362,000 [480] - Rurouni Kenshin: The Final Chapter - The Final (Warner Bros.)
¥500 million ↨
¥464.2 million ($4.3 million) / 293,000 [368] - Godzilla vs. Kong (Toho)
¥454.0 million ($4.1 million) / 335,000 [321] - My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission (Toho)
¥430.7 million ($3.9 million) / 281,676 [762] - 007: No Time to Die (Toho-Towa)
¥399.0 million ($3.8 million) / 138,000 [191] - Takizawa Kabuki Zero 2020: The Movie (Shochiku)
¥362.9 million ($3.3 million) / 247,600 [449] - Rurouni Kenshin: The Final Chapter - The Beginning (Warner Bros.)
¥330.7 million ($3.0 million) / 165,000 [215] - Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway (Shochiku)
¥300 million ↨
¥288.0 million ($2.7 million) / 219,000 [341] - The Promised Neverland (Toho)
¥287.5 million ($2.7 million) / 204,000 [197] - Gintama: The Final (Warner Bros.)
¥276.4 million ($2.7 million) / 234,000 [375] - Pokemon: Coco (Toho)
¥256.2 million ($2.3 million) / 162,000 [472] - Monster Hunter (Toho-Towa)
¥238.6 million ($2.2 million) / 211,000 [368] - Crayon Shin-chan: Shrouded in Mystery! Flowers of Tenkazu Academy (Toho)
¥232.6 million ($2.1 million) / 168,000 [349] - The Fable II (Shochiku)
¥220.0 million ($2.0 million) / 166,000 [335] - Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie (Toho)
¥218.8 million ($2.0 million) / 141,000 [267] - Black Widow (Disney)
¥216.8 million ($2.0 million) / 140,000 [779] - Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney)
¥214.0 million ($1.9 million) / 154,000 [363] - Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai (Toho/Asmik Ace)
¥207.2 million ($2.0 million) / 144,000 [306] - Poupelle of Chimney Town (Toho)
¥200 million ↨
¥191.3 million ($1.8 million) / 133,268 [350] - Loved Like a Flower Bouquet (Tokyo Theaters, Co./Little More)
¥190.6 million ($1.7 million) / 133,000 [319] - Character (Toho)
¥173.7 million ($1.6 million) / 135,000 [220] - Honey Lemon Soda (Shin-Toho)
¥171.5 million ($1.6 million) / 103,649 [178] - Fate/Grand Order - Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot Part 1 (Aniplex)
¥166.6 million ($1.6 million) / 134,653 [225] - Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim (Nikkatsu)
¥163.8 million ($1.5 million) / 124,500 [320] - Kaguya-sama: Love is War Final (Toho)
¥153.2 million ($1.4 million) / 112,000 [260] - Jungle Cruise (Disney)
¥151.0 million ($1.4 million) / 119,000 [354] - Tom & Jerry (Warner Bros.)
¥148.4 million ($1.4 million) / 135,000 [299] - A Morning of Farewell (Toei)
¥147.8 million ($1.3 million) / x91,000 [712] - Dune (Warner Bros.)
¥144.9 million ($1.4 million) / 109,000 [245] - Liar x Liar (Asmik Ace)
¥143.0 million ($1.3 million) / 111,000 [333] - Brave: Gunjyo Senki (Toho)
¥140.1 million ($1.3 million) / 112,564 [202] - Beautiful Lure - A Modern Tale of "Painted Skin" (Nikkatsu)
¥138.0 million ($1.2 million) / 101,000 [315] - Signal: The Movie (Toho)
¥130.7 million ($1.2 million) / x90,000 [323] - Last of the Wolves (Toei)
¥128.1 million ($1.2 million) / x81,000 [749] - The Suicide Squad (Warner Bros.)
¥126.5 million ($1.2 million) / x92,000 [119] - Detective Conan: The Scarlet Alibi (Toho)
¥126.4 million ($1.1 million) / x95,000 [348] - In the Wake (Shochiku)
¥124.4 million ($1.2 million) / x97,000 [335] - Kamen Rider Zero-One: REAL x TIME (Toei)
¥119.4 million ($1.1 million) / x87,000 [259] - Hell's Garden (Warner Bros.)
¥118.4 million ($1.1 million) / x88,000 [343] - Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction (Shochiku)
¥115.4 million ($1.1 million) / x96,114 [237] - Healin' Good Pretty Cure: GoGo! Big Transformation! Town of Dreams (Toei)
¥114.3 million ($1.1 million) / x75,677 [340] - Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros.)
¥109.0 million ($1.0 million) / x79,000 [355] - The Sun Does Not Move (Warner Bros.)
¥106.9 million ($1.0 million) / x65,000 [x64] - Girls und Panzer the Finale - Part 3 (Showgate)
¥103.4 million ($0.9 million) / x79,000 [341] - Lupin's Daughter (Toei)
¥102.8 million ($0.9 million) / x71,000 [100] - Fate/Grand Order - Final Singularity Grand Temple of Time: Solomon (Aniplex)
¥100 million ↑

Legend:
¥1 billion+ (Exemplary) / ¥500 million+ (Great) / ¥300 million+ (Good) / ¥200 million+ (Acceptable) / ¥100 million+ (Mediocre)

Corpse, do you know how much Akira (1988) grossed at the Japanese Box Office and WW? I have always had the doubt since is regarded as one of the first big anime hits internationally but I have heard that It did poorly in Japan

Edit: Wikipedia says ¥750M and that it was the sixth highest grossing movie that year but this page doesn't list it--> https://web.archive.org/web/20180319075 ... /1988.html

In fact that page the last movie in the list surpass the ¥1B in production income(?) so a ¥750M figure wouldn't put Akira anywhere near the top

I don't know how fiable any of this is trough

Japan Gross (Budget) : ¥6,346,343,871 (¥1,100,000,000)
See this link for Japan Gross : https://web.archive.org/web/20160621005 ... 5/business

Globally, it is $49M as mentioned in the Quatz Daily Magazine. (Which includes various re-release over time)

Corpse, can you take a look at Toho report? https://contents.xj-storage.jp/xcontent ... 06610s.pdf

Ouch Dune's doing really bad... But yep I guess it's not a big licence in Japan.

And @Corpse thanks for what you're doing and your regularity !! Plus your analyzes are really interesting and correct !

Regarding Akira, it had a distributor income of ¥750 million. That would be somewhere around ¥1.2 billion or so in gross.

That doesn't seem like a lot, and it's not really, but it's pretty good for an anime/animated film at the time. Besides the earlier Doraemon films in the 80s, anime films (honestly, just animation in general) weren't very successful at the box office until Kiki's Delivery Service topped the yearly box-office in 1989 and became the highest-grossing animated film ever at the time. Remember that even My Neighbor Totoro, one of the most popular films ever, was a box-office disappointment/bomb, too.

Kiki sort of opened the door for animated films to become huge hits/blockbusters at the box-office in Japan.

I don't know where IMDB got that ¥6 billion+ figure for Akira, they don't have any source, but it looks more to me like a worldwide USD figure perhaps converted back into JPY? If it made that much, it'd have appeared on Eiren's lists and be included on may other official rankings, but it's not on any of them.

Akira's status is mostly from how it showed what animated films could be (huge budget at the time, even to this day, and set some print and cel records, I think, then), not for its box-office, and how it paved the way for animation.

This is Toho's "semi-annual" report on their films that were in release from November 2020 through June 2021 (remember the Eiren/box-office year begins in late November in Japan) that earned over ¥1 billion up through July 25th, 2021 (time the report was published). Note: July releases wouldn't be included here since July releases are counted as the second-half of the year.

These are usually released in July and only have data on films released from November (prior year), if they made the cut-off date, through June. I'm guessing Toho included their October releases in this report as well and made the cut-off for grosses as of July 25th so they could include Demon Slayer's final total following its last weekend (Oct. 16th, 2020 - July 25th, 2021 was its full run, minus the final four following weekdays) for financial and press purposes.

The list (left to right) has the name of the film, its release date, its gross, and then how many days a film has been playing if it's still in release at the time of the report (in this case, that's July 25th).