It's nice to see Paw Patrol: Jet to the Rescue on the chart. We've had this at home for what feels like years already. It's not making a lot, but Japan is going to be its largest market. It's not really a movie, more considered a feature-length episode in most places.

And, of course, I'm over the Moon with Top Gun: Maverick. Another increase. It is the gift that keeps on giving. So happy for Tom.

What's the budget of DRAGON BALL SUPER - SUPER HERO?

Budgets are rarely reported, mostly only when they're notably high (like Kingdom II), so it's usually good news if they're unknown. Haha.

Most standard budgets are in the ¥500m-1 billion range ($3.5-7.5m). Since Super Hero relied heavily on CGI for the first time, its budget was likely on the lower end of this range.

The new Sword Art Online movie, which was scheduled to open on Sept. 10th (just in time for Silver Week), has been delayed due to COVID-19 impacting its production schedule.

COVID has been pretty crazy in Japan for a couple months now, so we might need to watch for other potential delays for films scheduled in the next couple of months. Many Japanese films only wrap up production a month or so before their scheduled release, so they'll be vulnerable to delays if enough filmmakers/actors test positive or get sick.

It still amazes me how big of a 13th weekend Frozen had.

Yep. Its 8th-13th weekends were special even for a special run (its 8th is even its biggest overall weekend, at over ¥1 billion). Its 13th weekend was only off 23% from its OW.

Also Corpse, when will you update first page graphics/stats again? Don't see anything from 2021 or 2022 on there (no JJK0, top gun maverick, etc...)

One Piece Film Red - Daily Tracker

Sat. (08/06): ¥1,232,095,230 ($9.1 million) / 869,407
Sun. (08/07): ¥1,022,141,800 ($7.6 million) / 710,145
Mon. (08/08): ¥591,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000
Tues. (08/09): ¥466,000,000 ($3.5 million) / 340,000
Wed. (08/10): ¥525,000,000 ($3.9 million) / 415,000
Thur. (08/11): ¥593,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000 *Holiday* / *Start of Obon Festival*
Fri. (08/12): ¥548,000,000 ($4.1 million) / 395,000
Sat. (08/13): ¥833,137,000 ($6.2 million) / 573,195
Sun. (08/14): ¥663,963,000 ($5.0 million) / 456,805
Mon. (08/15): ¥586,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 428,000
Tues. (08/16): ¥443,000,000 ($3.3 million) / 322,000
Wed. (08/17): ¥408,000,000 ($3.1 million) / 297,000 *End of Obon Festival*
Thur. (08/18): ¥278,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 197,000
Fri. (08/19): ¥274,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 192,000
Sat. (08/20): ¥380,598,600 ($2.8 million) / 260,000
Sun. (08/21): ¥437,715,000 ($3.2 million) / 299,000
Mon. (08/22): ~¥215,000,000 ($1.6 million) / ~155,000
Tues. (08/23): ~¥190,000,000 ($1.4 million) / ~130,000

Cumulative Total (18-Days): ~¥9,686,365,450 ($72.2 million) / ~6,936,711

**********

And with that Tuesday, I think it's almost certain to exceed ¥10 billion on Thursday (second fastest film to reach the milestone, 5 days ahead of Spirited Away and 8+ days ahead of everything else). And if we assume a fourth weekend that's around the same strength as its third weekend (due to the giveaway), it'll probably break ¥11 billion on Sunday (second fastest film to reach the milestone by a huge margin).

Yeah, that's really out of date now. I've said I'd get around to updating it for over a year, I think.

I'll do it this week.

OP 15b is probably near locked at this point, obviously we are approaching end of summer so it'll take a hit but it's hard to imagine it will collapse so hard that it won't add another 4 billion after this weekend, especially since september definitely does not look impressive. Thinking 17b maybe, #10-9 all-time would be nice.

What I'm wondering about is, how many giveaways do they have planned? A 3M 3rd giveaway probably means they want this one to last a while I assume.

You guys probably know me well enough by now, so I'll wait before saying ¥15 billion is looking reasonable. If this upcoming weekend barely drops or is flat, or if it actually increases, I'll likely jump on board.

It's still that mark that sets a film apart from the ¥10 billion+ earners, one that can really only be reached when a film transcends that sort of "upper-tier" status, with only five films getting there in the last 18 years (2020 (Demon Slayer), 2016 (Your Name.), 2014 (Frozen), 2009 (Avatar), and 2008 (Ponyo)).

If One Piece does do it, it'd be one of the craziest performances and be a very unique entry among the current twelve ¥15 billion+ earners. It has the popular music / chart topping song(s) and album that half of them share, but that's about it. It'd be the first in many different other ways. It's an anime film, but not in the same category as the four Miyazaki films above that milestone. It's apart of a film franchise, but not a sequel in the same way as Bayside Shakedown 2 and Harry Potter 2 (the only sequels on the list).

It'll be a very interesting entry if it makes it.

Hey Corpse, I found some interesting data.

According to this link Galaxy Express 999 made ¥16,500,000,000 back in 1979, and thus would rank as the 11th highest-grossing movie in Japan. That's $76,120,000 in US dollars at the time.

Also, where's the Tokyo Olympiad in the list? I always remember that being, like, the third highest-grossing movie. Or was that just on the attendance list?

There is problem with decimal point not ¥16.5B but ¥1.65B.

Before production delay of DBS due to hack, the budget was closest to ¥550M but I am not sure how much more they spent after hack. BTW, Kingdom II budget is ¥1.6B (vs ¥600M of Kingdom)

Yeah, the Crunchyroll article is inaccurate.

And Tokyo Olympiad, as well as any other high attended film from the 50s to mid-60s, aren't on the highest grossing film list because tickets were literally dirt cheap in those years. A film could have sold 100 MILLION admissions and still barely reach ¥5/6 billion, for example. Like... a film would need 500 million+ admissions to compare to the highest grossing films.

More than 1 billion tickets were being sold in some of these years (almost 10x as many admissions than the 1970s to modern day) as a result, but earnings were extremely low in comparison.

Ticket prices increased nearly 300% from 1960 to 1965, and almost another 400% from 1965 to 1975. Then they increased a more "reasonable" 50% from 1975 to 1985. And after some gradual increases from there, ticket prices have been almost the same since the mid-1990s (just a 16% increase from 1992 to 2022, most of which comes from premium formats inflating prices in recent years).

Ah ok, thanks for clearing that up.

Funnily enough, I found that Galaxy Express 999 info on a Wikipedia page, so it just goes to show why Wikipedia isn't permitted for academic use.

One Piece Film Red - Daily Tracker

Sat. (08/06): ¥1,232,095,230 ($9.1 million) / 869,407
Sun. (08/07): ¥1,022,141,800 ($7.6 million) / 710,145
Mon. (08/08): ¥591,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000
Tues. (08/09): ¥466,000,000 ($3.5 million) / 340,000
Wed. (08/10): ¥525,000,000 ($3.9 million) / 415,000
Thur. (08/11): ¥593,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000 *Holiday* / *Start of Obon Festival*
Fri. (08/12): ¥548,000,000 ($4.1 million) / 395,000
Sat. (08/13): ¥833,137,000 ($6.2 million) / 573,195
Sun. (08/14): ¥663,963,000 ($5.0 million) / 456,805
Mon. (08/15): ¥586,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 428,000
Tues. (08/16): ¥443,000,000 ($3.3 million) / 322,000
Wed. (08/17): ¥408,000,000 ($3.1 million) / 297,000 *End of Obon Festival*
Thur. (08/18): ¥278,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 197,000
Fri. (08/19): ¥274,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 192,000
Sat. (08/20): ¥380,598,600 ($2.8 million) / 260,000
Sun. (08/21): ¥437,715,000 ($3.2 million) / 299,000
Mon. (08/22): ~¥215,000,000 ($1.6 million) / ~155,000
Tues. (08/23): ~¥190,000,000 ($1.4 million) / ~130,000
Wed. (08/24): ~¥240,000,000 ($1.8 million) / ~175,000

Cumulative Total (19-Days): ~¥9,926,365,450 ($74.0 million) / ~7,111,711

**********

Very, very strong Wednesday. The big moment happens tomorrow (¥10 billion), so we should get an official announcement ahead of the weekend. Again, second fastest to hit the milestone, five days faster than Spirited Away, and eight days or more than every other film.

Also, in exceeding 7 million admissions today, it became the second fastest film ever to reach the milestone.

Reservations for this weekend begin, well, right now!, so those will be fun to check later to see what impact the third giveaway is going to have. I noticed some theaters went back to almost opening weekend level showings.

Hey Corpse, assuming Suzume no Tojimari goes beyond the 10 billion mark as well. Could this be one of the biggest years in Japanese box office history? It seems 2019 and 2010 are the only competition left.

Also is there a limit to how many movies can breakthrough 10B a year? It seems the maximum is about four movies a year. Is that due to the nature of the market (less frontloaded,more leggy)?

I'll do some math tomorrow for you. As far as the Top 10 films go, it'll definitely be high on the list. What helps is that the ¥10 billion earners this year haven't just gotten to that mark, they've grossed a lot more. One Piece looks like it might be going for ¥15 billion, Jujutsu Kaisen did ¥13.8 billion, and Top Gun 2 looks like it could aim for ¥13 billion (¥12.5 billion at least) itself. That's sort of an extra ¥10 billion film with the extra they're earning.

However, it's the numbers below that mark that give me doubts that it can compete with 2019, 2017, or 2010 (the three biggest years) overall. So far, 30 films have earned more than ¥1 billion in 2022. That's a little low going into September soon. This probably needs to be more like 50 by the end of the year, at least, and adding ~20 more films looks unlikely to me. Now, 2010 is the third biggest year with just 48 ¥1 billion entries, so it's doable with a number around there. But you want to see as many as possible (2019 and 2017 have the most with 65 and 62).

Other concerns:

-On paper, what appears to be a weak Fall (Sept.-Nov.) slate. All these big films are important, but you need some smaller/mid-sized hits, too, and this Fall looks pretty scarce on that front to me.

-Disney's ongoing struggles. There's Avatar 2 in December, of course, but that's all they have and will count toward 2023. And so far this year, they've only had one film (Dr. Strange 2) even reach ¥2 billion, and barely (it's even their only ¥2 billion earner since 2019!). Having what was the second biggest distributor for a decade+, only behind Toho, performing so pathetically really drags things down.

As for how many ¥10 billion earners a year can have, I suppose there's not a limit, but they're rare, so you don't see many in a single year very often.

Most years only have one or two films get there, while some don't have any at all (2011, 2012, and 2015 being the most recent years). And then you get the very rare years (2003, 2004, and 2019) that have three or four (2004 has the record with five). So, maybe you could say 5 has been the limit, and 2 has been the average.

Thanks so much Corpse! Its unfortunate that not many films had gone beyond the 1B mark this year.
Although Disney drags things down it seems the Japanese film industry is still somewhat healthy. I'm thankful for that. I don't want another Hollywood-esque market where only blockbusters (Mostly marvel) stuff can survive.

Japan is an interesting market in that way, I feel. And I wonder, Corpse, how organic is it? Was there a time where, like in China, national product was forced upon the populace with foreign movies either banned or discouraged? or was it purely free choice at play?

There seems to be a nice relationship between foreign and local films in Japan, and the quality of the movie is what dictates their success. I suppose this is emulated in the U.S. as well, with films such as Parasite, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the recent Japanese anime hits, but it's not as frequent.

I can't recall a time like you mentioned. Japan, I think, sees more films released theatrically than any other country besides India. (At least, this was a stat I saw years back.) Films from all over the world get released, including China or other countries where there may be tensions (like South Korea).

Now, the vast majority of imported releases don't get wide releases, but I think this is mainly due to the Japanese film industry just having so many releases, followed closely by Hollywood, that it's just really crowded and difficult for some to find a bigger distributor / space to thrive.

And, while I could be wrong, I don't know of any edits or censors happening with imported releases. Japan's movie rating system is a lot more lenient than many markets, where R-rated films in the US, for example, are more likely to be like R15 or even PG12 rated in the market. A lot horror movies get just PG12 ratings, for instance. Basically, take whatever a film rating is in the US and lower it a level, and that's probably what it'd be in Japan.

They're really only strict and give R18 ratings when it comes to films with suicide, bullying, and drug-use. Nudity, crime, violence, and other things aren't really issues since they aren't issues in the country itself, where as suicide and bullying are real problems, and drug use is often related to the Yakuza.

But on the "propaganda" topic, like if an imported Chinese releases claims the Senkaku Islands are theirs or something, I'm really not sure. Like, I don't really see anything about films being banned or not imported for these reasons. Not saying it doesn't happen, I just don't think there are many cases to really go off of.

One Piece Film Red - Daily Tracker

Sat. (08/06): ¥1,232,095,230 ($9.1 million) / 869,407
Sun. (08/07): ¥1,022,141,800 ($7.6 million) / 710,145
Mon. (08/08): ¥591,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000
Tues. (08/09): ¥466,000,000 ($3.5 million) / 340,000
Wed. (08/10): ¥525,000,000 ($3.9 million) / 415,000
Thur. (08/11): ¥593,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 430,000 *Holiday* / *Start of Obon Festival*
Fri. (08/12): ¥548,000,000 ($4.1 million) / 395,000
Sat. (08/13): ¥833,137,000 ($6.2 million) / 573,195
Sun. (08/14): ¥663,963,000 ($5.0 million) / 456,805
Mon. (08/15): ¥586,000,000 ($4.4 million) / 428,000
Tues. (08/16): ¥443,000,000 ($3.3 million) / 322,000
Wed. (08/17): ¥408,000,000 ($3.1 million) / 297,000 *End of Obon Festival*
Thur. (08/18): ¥278,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 197,000
Fri. (08/19): ¥274,000,000 ($2.1 million) / 192,000
Sat. (08/20): ¥380,598,600 ($2.8 million) / 260,000
Sun. (08/21): ¥437,715,000 ($3.2 million) / 299,000
Mon. (08/22): ~¥215,000,000 ($1.6 million) / ~155,000
Tues. (08/23): ~¥190,000,000 ($1.4 million) / ~130,000
Wed. (08/24): ~¥240,000,000 ($1.8 million) / ~175,000
Thur. (08/25): ~¥165,000,000 ($1.2 million) / ~115,000

Cumulative Total (20-Days): ~¥10,091,365,450 ($75.2 million) / ~7,226,711

**********

And ¥10 billion has been surpassed! Second fastest film to ever reach the mark at only 20 days.

And I'm pretty confident this weekend is either on track to remain flat versus last weekend, or even increase. The reservations for Saturday are looking really strong at this stage, so ¥11 billion could be exceeded after Sunday and be on the cusp of 8 million admissions.

Toho Shinjuku's Saturday showings (back up to 19 showings) look to be at least 70/75% full already. 4 sell outs, 4 more nearing sell out, and 5 over half-full.

Toho Nishinomiya is nearing half capacity for Saturday, 4/12 showings almost sold out and another over half-full.

Toho Ikebukuro already has a sold out showing for Saturday, 3 more nearing sell out, and 3 over half-full.

If a few more locations look like this in the morning, ~24 hours out, then a fourth weekend increase is incredibly likely, I feel. Only three films (Demon Slayer, Your Name., Spirited Away) have ever had a fourth weekend above ¥1 billion, and One Piece may join them. Funnily enough, these are the four fastest films to reach ¥10 billion, too.