News
Japanese Box Office, March 19-20
posted on by Egan Loo
After the 39.9% drop in receipts in the weekend immediately after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster, the top 30 films at the Japanese box office rebounded 41.3%. Many theaters were temporarily or permanently out of commission due to the earthquake, but some have since resumed operating by the following weekend.
Doraemon: Shin Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan - Habatake Tenshi-tachi, Yukiyo Teramoto and Shinei Animation's remake of the 1986 film Doraemon: Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan (Doraemon: Nobita and the Platoon of Iron Men), stayed at #2 in its third weekend. It earned the equivalent of US$2,268,098 (15.8% increase over the previous weekend) on 275 (14 more than the previous weekend) screens for a total-to-date of US$11,373,287.
Precure All-Stars DX3 Mirai ni Todoke! Sekai o Tsunagu Niji-Iro no Hana, Takashi Otsuka's third film to combine the casts of all the Pretty Cure (Precure) magical girl television series to date, opened at #3 on Kogyo Tsushinsha's chart. It opened at #4 on Box Office Mojo's chart with US$1,653,388 on 130 screens. The Asahi Shimbun paper reported that part of the film was edited out since a tsunami scene or scenes "were reminiscent of the disaster."
Jump Heroes Film, the double-billing of Toriko 3D: Kaimaku Gourmet Adventure!! and One Piece 3D: Mugiwara Chase, opened at #7 with US$1,386,663 on 125 screens.
The first film in Shinsuke Satō's live-action adaptation of Hiroya Oku's Gantz action manga fell from #7 to #10 in its eighth weekend. It earned US$340,077 on 237 screens to add to its total of US$39,391,366.
Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa, the second anime film based on Shōji Kawamori and Satelight's Macross Frontier science-fiction series, dropped from #8 to #11 in its fourth weekend. It earned US$332,920 (22.4% increase over the previous weekend) on 33 screens (5 more than the previous weekend) for a gross-to-date of US$4,972,236.
Gekijō-ban Anime Nintama Rantaro Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudō! no Dan, the film based on the ninja comedy television anime Nintama Rantaro, dropped from #9 to #13 in its second weekend. It earned US$219,860 on 100 screens for a total of US$638,625.
The live-action film version of Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba's classic boxing manga Ashita no Joe is no longer listed on either chart.
The #1 film for the second weekend is the live-action drama spinoff SP Kakumei-Hen.
Sources: Kogyo Tsushinsha, Box Office Mojo
follow-up of Japanese Box Office, March 12-13
