Some of the Barbenheimer memes are probably going too far for some Japanese, I agree. The poster above is not a good look. It's sort of become a celebratory thing, and that can be concerning for sure. I don't think there's really any evil intent behind it or anything, but it's easy to see how it's being viewed in bad taste at minimum and potentially offensive at worst.

Looking good. Still need to wait a while (at least post-Obon in a couple weeks) to get an idea of where it may finish, but ¥5 billion is certainly doable. To outgross MI6, it needs to beat ¥4.72b (seems very likely). To outgross MI3 and MI5, it needs to beat ¥5.14b and 5.15b (at least 50/50 chance). And to outgross MI4, it needs to beat ¥5.38b (a little harder, but still achievable).

¥5 billion is only about $35m with the awful exchange rate, so in USD, it probably won't outgross any of its predecessors despite possibly beating all but the first two films in JPY and probably admissions too.

But... comparing USD numbers isn't an accurate means of judging performance. For example, MI4 was released in one of the best exchange rate years ever and earned over $70m with just ¥5.38b... That's only $38m today, just over half as much... MI7 would need to gross a crazy ¥10 billion (86% MORE than MI4) just to match it in USD.

So.... the First Slam Dunk just bombed in north american market despite getting a perfect rotten tomatoes meter. Earning less than half of the-numbers prediction in its first weekend.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it's barely known in the US, right? As an early/mid-90s series that has never had any new content released since then (besides reprints of the manga), it missed out on the beginning of the anime boom that started in the late 90s in the US with Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon that helped all the early 2000s anime get exposure.

It would probably be popular among Americans, I suspect, they just didn't (or haven't) had much of a chance to get familiar with it.

What corpse said basically. Slam Dunk isn't a hugely popular anime/manga in the USA (though I do remember it being introduced in the American version of Shonen Jump) and even the most premier anime doesn't make boffo bucks at the box office. Maybe more on home video for Ghibli.

Well I don't think Anime makes boffo bucks at the American box office anyways. I think Slam Dunk did a lot better than if they tried to introduce the Detective Conan movies to the American moviegoers though.

Detective Conan is unfortunately way too Japanese to succeed in the US.

Someone on BOT (Sophia) posted that Universal won't release Oppenheimer because they don't want to hurt their business in Japan

I think Crayon Shin-chan and Elemental will be the premier new releases on August 4th and each have around 200,000 seats on mimorin and 400,000 total seats each.

I came to this conclusion by looking at how seats were allocated now, on August 1st, and guessing.

We will find out in about 3 days.

I take that as a guess, but I also question if the movie will be released in Japan.

I can't blame her either. Sophia was one of the few who knows the Minion 2 will make into China despite many calling out that China Film Administration has banned the Film. So, can't discredit someone who is good in Film Distribution matters

Well, let's see how it goes.

Kingdom III (510 TC)

49 IMAX | 78 4DX | 7 Dolby Cinema

¥1,050,708,610 / 703,530 admits - across 3-Days OW

— Day-Date Breakdown —
07/28 - ¥281,629,420 / 195,236 admits
07/29 - ¥386,712,090 / 255,270 admits
07/30 - ¥382,367,100 / 253,024 admits

Customer Satisfactory Rate is at 94.6%

— Gross Comparison (FSS) —
+52% | Kingdom I (¥5.73B Final)
+03% | Kingdom II (¥5.16B Final)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

14th WKend - ¥84,255,780 / 63,405 admits
Total Until SUN (07/30) - ¥13,392,604,740 / 9,389,608 admits

Records to be noted -
— All-Time 2nd Biggest Imported Animation Only behind Disney's "Frozen" (¥25.50B)
— Post-CoVid-19 2nd Biggest Imported Film Only behind Paramount/Towa Pictures's "Top Gun: Maverick" (¥13.72B)
— All-Time 14th Highest Grossing Animated Film in Japan
— All-Time 25th Highest Grossing Film in Japan.

Mistranslation? Google translate says "Currently, it's possible to see both movies in US".
It's highly unlikely for one studio to recommend watching film from other studio.

Ah, I see now it's because from whom I have copied the translation seems in hurry. So left with very rough translation with errors -

Wonder if the controversy will sink Barbie in the country?

Maybe if more and more media outlets pick up on it.

The tweet by Barbie USA was pretty tasteless, honestly. They should just apologize.

It's too late to change the narrative on How Do You Live. Other movies are coming up.

The thing is that it's already a global news, even Hollywood BO Reporter "Deadline" is covering it too.


Marketing Staff shouldn't have responded to the meme at all. They should have stayed away from hot topics like Oppenheimer

Basically the maximum theater count there since it got all premium formats locations. It could have had about 10 more standard theaters to take that 510 total up to 520, but it basically opened with maximum reach.

Very good opening. I have it just slightly below Kingdom II's opening though? Maybe Kingdom II had a few previews added to its OW that I forgot about.

Kingdom II was a little frontloaded, so I hope Kingdom III holds better by being closer to Obon Festival. Kingdom II still finishing above ¥5 billion was still great, of course. If the third film can also get there, it'll be a rare occasion for a domestic live-action trilogy or series. The only two that come to mind that have done it in the past are Bayside Shakedown (4/4) and Umizaru (3/4).

If Barbie disappoints, many might blame it on the possible backlash of the memes, but please remember... Western comedies have an extremely poor track record in Japan. They simply don't translate well. So, even though it's garnering a ton of attention in the US and worldwide which can help films when they reach Japan, the genre can still be a hinderance. (Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are both pretty unknown names in the market too, so not easy to market it on them.)

Given precedent, it wouldn't be surprising if it would disappoint in Japan, at least relative to what it's doing in much of the world, so I don't want people thinking it was destined to do big numbers in Japan if only it wasn't for the meme backlash.

I don't know how it'll do. I can see it breaking out due to the numbers and attention its doing worldwide, but I can also see it not doing well either.

I am so psyched to see how Elemental performs in Japan but also Obon festival box office.