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Japanese Box Office, November 3–4: Resident Evil at #1

Kogyo Tsushinsha's top ten chart for the Japanese box office in the November 3–4 weekend was led by a game spinoff, a manga sequel, a mobile phone novel remake, and a manga prequel. Paul W. S. Anderson's Resident Evil: Extinction (Biohazard III) diverged significantly from the original CAPCOM survival horror game franchise, but still earned the equivalent of US$5,208,839 (Box Office Mojo) for a #1 premiere. Takashi Yamazaki's Always Zoku San-chōme no Yūhi (Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, pictured to the right), a sequel to a movie based on Ryōhei Saigan's nostalgic Sanchoume no Yuuhi - Yuuyake no Uta slice-of-life manga, took in US$4,772,726 in its first week for #2. (Saigan's manga also inspired a 1990-91 television anime series.)

Another new movie, Natsuki Imai's Koizora (Sky of Love: Someone I Love Is There), was based on the unflinchingly frank, loosely autobiographical first novel of an author named Mika. This bittersweet story of a girl's first forays in love spread like wildfire over mobile phones before selling 1.4 million paper copies. The film version earned US$4,145,087 for the #3 spot. Takashi Miike's Crows Zero prequel to Yukihiko Tsutsumi's Crows school brawl manga dropped from #1 to #4 in its second week. It added a US$2,556,547 weekend haul to its US$9,111,810 total.

Image © 2007 Always Zoku San-chōme no Yūhi Production Committee