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One Piece Film Red Stays at #1, Utano☆Princesama Film Opens at #7
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The One Piece Film Red anime stayed at #1 for a fifth straight weekend at the Japanese box office. The film earned 696,569,070 yen (about US$4.96 million) from Friday to Sunday, and sold 498,000 tickets over the weekend. The film has now sold over 9,298,000 tickets for a cumulative total of 12,953,144,640 yen (about US$92.34 million).
One Piece Film Red has topped the Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time (Shin Evangelion Gekijō-ban :||) film as the #10 all-time highest-grossing anime film in Japan, and is now the ninth highest-earning anime film in Japan of all time. It has also topped Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest-earning film to open in Japan so far this year. The film is now the 21st highest-grossing film in Japan of all time.
The film ranked #1 in the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. The film sold 1.58 million tickets and earned 2.254 billion yen (about US$16.7 million) in its first two days. The film earned 78% more in its first two days than the previous film One Piece Stampede did in its first three days (One Piece Stampede opened on a Friday, as opposed to One Piece Film Red's Saturday opening). It has become the franchise's highest-selling and highest-earning film installment, in terms of both the number of tickets sold and yen earned at the box office.
The film opened in Japan on August 6. The film has IMAX screenings in 27 theaters in Japan that opened alongside regular screenings. The film also had MX4D, 4DX, and Dolby Atmos screenings on opening day. Crunchyroll will theatrically screen the film in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand this fall. The screenings will be available in both Japanese audio with English subtitles, and an English dub.
The film centers on a new character named Uta, Shanks' daughter. Kaori Nazuka is the speaking voice of Uta, while Ado is the character's singing voice. Ado also performs the film's theme song "Shinjidai" ("New Genesis"). Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass, One Piece: Defeat The Pirate Ganzak! special) directed One Piece Film Red. Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film Gold, One Piece: Heart of Gold, GANTZ:O, live-action Black Butler) wrote the screenplay, and One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda himself served as executive producer.
Gekijō-ban Utano☆Princesama♪ Maji Love ST☆RISH Tours, the latest film in the Utano☆Princesama franchise, ranked at #7 in its opening weekend. The film sold 86,500 tickets and earned 140 million yen (about US$996,400) in its first three days. The film earned about 69.61 million yen (about US$495,400) on its opening day on Friday, earning 63% more than the previous film in the franchise, Uta no Prince Sama Maji Love Kingdom, did on its first day when it opened in Japan in June 2019.
The film opened on Friday and is playing in 128 theaters across Japan. The film — described as part of a "new theatrical film series" — is entirely composed of concert footage of the ST☆RISH idol group. Noriyasu Agematsu was once again credited as the original creator with Broccoli. Elements Garden composed the music, and A-1 Pictures produced the film. Shochiku is distributing the film.
Kingdom II: Harukanaru Daichi e (To Distant Lands), the sequel film based on Yasuhisa Hara's Kingdom manga, stayed at #8 in its eighth weekend. It earned 57,532,850 yen (about US$409,700) from Friday to Sunday for a new total of 4,842,366,200 yen (about US$34.48 million).
The film opened in Japan on July 15. In August, it became the highest-earning Japanese live-action film in Japan so far this year.
Shinsuke Satō (live-action Gantz, Death Note Light up the NEW world, Bleach) returned as director. Kento Yamazaki, Ryō Yoshizawa, and Kanna Hashimoto all reprised their respective characters Shin (Xin), Ei Sei (Yin Zheng), and Ka Ryō Ten (He Liao Diao) from the previous film. Tsutomu Kuroiwa (One Piece Film Gold, live-action Black Butler, GANTZ:O) joined Satō and Hara in writing the script, and Yutaka Yamada (Tokyo Ghoul, Vinland Saga, live-action Bleach) composed the music. Mr. Children contributed the theme song "Ikiro" (Live).
The first film opened in Japan in April 2019 and sold 506,861 tickets to earn 690,219,500 yen (about US$6.17 million) in its first three days. The film later sold a total of 4.11 million tickets for 5,471,938,400 yen (about US$50.42 million), and eventually earned a cumulative total of 5.73 billion yen (about US$53.2 million). Funimation screened the film at Anime Expo in July 2019, and began screening the film in theaters in the United States and Canada in August 2019.
Sources: Kōgyō Tsūshin, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, comScore via KOFIC
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